The first year of college provides challenges that are unavoidable and unexpected. Oftentimes I have days where it seems nothing goes the way I thought it would socially, academically, or emotionally. Unlike high school, where opinions are fed to you through parents and teachers and you are told to trust everything you have learned, college provides an outlet for critical thinking and individual opinions to be made and. I have found ENVS 160 to be a good reflection of my Freshman experience; full of new perspectives and ideas that challenge my naive teenage certainty.
Me at my high school graduation: full of solid opinions and confidence! Little did I know that would soon disappear…
With each new class it seems we uncover yet another way of viewing our environment. Starting off the semester reading Why We Disagree About Climate Change began to chip away at the building blocks of my steadfast opinions. In high school I had been the classroom hippie – the one who knew the most about the environment and how to save it. Suddenly I wasn’t so sure, who knew that there were so many perspectives and complications out there? From studying the influence of religion on how people view the environment to seeing the influence of the media on climate change opinion showed me that climate change was more than just a simple matter that one could agree or disagree upon. Climate change is instead an issue that means something different to every individual, and is influenced by our beliefs and experiences. And so, the first lesson I learned was to never assume I have the full picture.
The second lesson I learned happened mostly outside of the ENVS classroom. In conjunction with ENVS 160, I am taking an introductory politics course this semester in which we have been studying the reasons individuals feel strongly about certain issues and believe the things we do. I learned that our most fundamental morals come from our parents and childhood, and that our beliefs are essentially a compilation of gained experiences. As we transitioned from Why We Disagree About Climate Change to other texts, the cracks in my arguments widened, I wondered if I really knew why I believed the things I did or if my opinions were just an extension of my parents or the town I grew up in. During the Skype interview with nuclear energy expert Emma Redfoot I began to wonder why I ever thought nuclear was such an awful idea, I realized I in fact knew nothing about nuclear energy other than the popular opinion that it was extremely dangerous. During this portion of the class I felt discouraged, but inspired to find my own path and opinions about as many issues as possible. I learned to question my own opinions and the opinions of others, which has in turn made me a more aware scholar.
This trend has continued as we read Who Rules the Earth and study how social rules shape how we treat and view our planet. I find myself walking away from class with more questions than answers, which is perhaps the point. The third lesson I have learned is therefore to simply keep looking for questions that have to be answered, to gain as many perspectives as possible. I look forward to continuing to ask questions and challenging myself in ENVS 160 with the few weeks remaining in the course, and to take these lessons with me as I grow as an ENVS major.