Matter Out of Place
Last week at Camp Shalom, I took advantage of the last few weeks of program season and joined a group of NatureBridge students for a hike. The 5th graders I spent the morning with were from Extera, a public school in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Extera received nearly $5,000 in scholarship funds in order to make their NatureBridge trip possible.
I joined for the Challenge Hike. The nerves were palpable, and it took longer than usual to get started with lots of dragging feet in anticipation of the 5-mile hike to the Nicholas Flats Pond. Recognizing and honoring these anxieties, our NatureBridge educator, Elizabeth, took extra time with us, generating excitement to overcome the challenge and work together as a team.
The group was mostly male and all Latinx, but one of the few girls in the group requested a job. “You can be the MOOP Master,” Elizabeth responded. We then got into a conversation about MOOP – Matter Out of Place – and ways to recognize it and what to do about it. “Can someone give me an example of MOOP?” asked Elizabeth. “Trash!” said one student. “Apple cores!” said another.
A third small voice added, “Me.”
There was a long pause before Elizabeth asked the student, “ Why do you say that?”
He responded, “Because I’m out of place. I’m out of place here.”
Elizabeth tried to clarify. “Do you think you’re out of place in the woods?”
“Yes, I am out of place everywhere here. I don’t belong here. I belong in Mexico.”
Elizabeth paused again, and the 5th graders were unusually quiet. She said, “It makes me feel so sad that you feel that way. You belong here. We all belong here.”
And just like that, we went on our way. The hike began, the chatter and goofing around resumed. There were shrieks of excitement and groans of complaint. All the while, I was taking in what had just happened. I’ve never felt out of place in the woods. It’s where I go to come home. What if I never had that? Furthermore, what if I never felt at home anywhere, or what if I felt like home was a faraway place that I couldn’t get to?
About a half mile in, we stopped to play a game. It was an exercise to illustrate interconnectedness – between each other, between different species, between living and nonliving, and between things that “belong” here and things that don’t. I don’t know if Elizabeth had planned to do this, but it was a stroke of genius either way. I watched the boy who considered himself MOOP pick a flower, and talk about how the flower needed the water from the stream we’d just crossed. I’ll never know if he consciously recognized himself as part of the web we created, but I know for a moment, he realized he was right where he was supposed to be.
Stories
In Memory of Ty Cobb: A Visionary Leader of Resilience and Impact
Ty Cobb, former CEO of Yosemite National Institutes (now NatureBridge), passed away on Saturday, December 7, 2024 in Reno at the age of 84. Known for his visionary leadership, resilience, and ability to inspire collaboration, Ty guided YNI through some of its most difficult moments while building a foundation for its future growth and success.
WildLink November 2024: Woodlake High School
This November, Woodlake High School students and chaperones arrived in Yosemite for their first year as a WildLink school, and we are so excited to have them on the team! That means that the brave students who signed up for this expedition had virtually no idea what to expect before signing up for the trip, because none of their peers had experienced it before them! The week, although quite frigid, was full of lovely views, learning about Wilderness, spending lots of time by the river, and enjoying the beauty of Yosemite Valley and Wilderness. Their educators Sarah and Amelia were excited to help this group feel a sense of belonging in this place. They were also lucky enough to be joined by Ranger Lissie on their first day in the Wilderness!
Fall Reflections from NatureBridge Yosemite
As an environmental science educator, I spend a lot of time teaching about nature, but this season I’ve been finding that as it turns out, nature has a lot to teach us, too. Sometimes I can let the trees, the meadow, and the lichen teach for me. They show us how to respect each other’s boundaries, how to celebrate differences, how to work together, and how to lean on each other’s strengths in order to exist in a new place. These lessons felt incredibly relevant to me heading into the first week of November, a notoriously busy time at NatureBridge Yosemite. I wanted to focus on messages of kindness and inclusivity with my students, I wanted them to feel a sense of belonging in this new space, and I also hoped that they would share those messages with others.