How Edward Abbey Helped Me Understand My Time at the Nature Center

At the beginning of the semester, I remember sitting in class wondering why Dr. Williams was showing us these obscure poems and passages from some random man named Edward Abbey. They felt dusty, like old postcards from a desert I’d never stepped foot in. Poems filled with foreign words and out of place thoughts and frustration at the modern world. I didn’t get it. I didn’t see the connection. But now, months later, after working at the nature center and spending time immersed in the quiet rhythms of the land, Abbey’s words have taken root in a different way. His love for wild places, his distrust of development, and his sharp, unapologetic tone all started to echo in my own realizations. I’ve walked the trails with kids, cleaned out habitats, and watched the way people interact with the natural world. Somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking about Abbey as a bitter outsider and started seeing him as someone who deeply cared so much that it hurt him to see nature overlooked or destroyed. I thought about a topic that I have deeply cared about, and how brutally honest it made me. There was no sugar coating or pleasing of other people: just brutal honesty. Working at the nature center has opened my eyes to how easily we forget to look around. Like Abbey, I started noticing the small things: the way a turtle lifts its head while basking in the sun, the shade provided by the massive green trees, the unspoken knowledge in the soil. I realized that maybe what Dr. Williams was really trying to show us wasn’t just Abbey’s honest words, but it was how to pay attention. How to take in and process the surroundings with deep gratitude and appreciation.   Reflecting now, I understand that Abbey wasn’t just ranting about deserts or dams; he was asking us to slow down, to see what’s in front of us, and to protect it before it’s gone. That’s what I’ve been doing at the nature center, even if I didn’t have the words for it at first. And in some small way, I think Abbey would’ve approved.