What I am studying: Freedom of the Mind

Dear Audience,

      As I sit at my desk and I stare at my paper titled "Nature's Beauty" I fall into a zone. I am starring at my feet, as I walk towards a mountainous peak. The air is crisp ,while the breeze is cool. As I look up to see what's ahead of me, a beautiful dragon shows up to receive me. I notice it is not just any dragon, but a dragon of my imagination. I approach him and I stare at his feathers. I can zoom in , and I can zoom out. Maybe I will change its colors. Emerald green green, with golden tips. Maybe I should add gems; Sapphire and Rubies running down his back. White pearls, Topaz , Jade forming a crown like design on its head. Its eyes are deep, reflecting pieces of Onyx and Opal. I gently pat his head and get on his back, because I feel there's a place I must get to. I was right. He takes off and under me there are trees that I change. From red, broken brownish leaves to trees with green healthy leaves and I add small worlds on them full of microorganisms and bacteria that gives the tree life. We come over a semi-dry and filthy ocean, the creatures are nowhere in sight. I start to purify the water and I bring in animals that beautify it. From far away I bring in a humpback whale who before I came, was striving to live on an island shore. It had bruises of all shapes and colors on its back and bloody scars of  fishing hooks that were left around its mouth. It was close to death but I gave it life. I heal her and I am instantly compelled by her beauty and existence. I bring in other fish like beings and even the ones that have gone extinct. The corals are unbleached and the water is healthy again.

      As we continue our Journey and as we fly over my world and restore it, I feel a deep burning inside of me and I realize that this was not only my world but the world I wish I could have. This world is the nature and wildlife I wish I could save. I noticed  the dragon is me. I am the one who flies and watches over all beings. The one who wants to fight for those voiceless beings. My phone rings and I glance back at my paper. That was the moment I realized I wanted to be an Environmental scientist. All my life I have been good at different things, art, writing, and even singing, but the one thing I see myself doing to change the world is to be the voice for wildlife and the environment. I am studying so that I can learn more about how to bring that deep burning desire of mine to the world and how to use it to fight for the environment. Art. writing, and singing were things I liked doing for fun. They were things I learned to do, but science was something that chose me. I can stare at a leaf and come up with different reasons to why it is beautiful, why it should live and why it should be respected. I can look at a grain of sand and come up with a timeline to where it will be in ten years. I can do this not because of what I was taught in school, but because I feel the importance of each environmental component. I know how each component plays a vital role in our lives and how they each come together to form the beautiful nature we know.

    Many say that depending on your minds freedom is how far you will get in life, I say that what if your minds freedom is limited, is it really free? See there are dreamers and then there a doers, at least that's what people say. But I also say that there are dreamers, doers and dreamers that act upon their dream. I am studying Environmental science, the branch of science that deals with the health of the interaction between all which is living and nonliving in this world. This science helps determine the conservation and sustainability measures needed in order to protect and save the environment while at the same time protecting people. I am studying this to not pick a side like many do, the people or the environment, but to bring them together. To show people we need the environment, and that its vital to our living. I am studying to show nature that it is not alone and that we will do all we can to live in harmony with it. The daydream I had was a wake up call, to take action upon that deep dream and desire I had since a child. I have always connected with nature, and it has always found a way to connect to me; it still does. I do not have this desire and I am not studying because I have minds freedom but because at a very young age I knew that if I wanted to change the world and carry out this dream my minds freedom was not enough, I had to have freedom of the mind. Freedom of the mind, to let my mind reach those imaginative thoughts that would get me this far, and freedom of the mind to get me farther.

Joyce Rivera