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[Oct. 2nd, 2003|12:32 pm] |
We’ve been spending many
of our World Lit classes at Waller Creek
lately. It is a creek that runs through the middle of campus, but seems
completely secluded from the busy streets above it. I love sitting on
the rocks and writing about nature, sense of time and space, or
whatever prompt Professor Bump gives us. Last week, for instance, I
wrote:
“Right now, on the morning of September 25, 2003 C.E., I sit on a
limestone rock in the middle of Waller Creek in Austin, Texas, United
States of America, North America, Planet Earth, the Milky Way. But
what, really, does that mean? Where am I? “O Earth, what changes hast
thou seen?” (143)
This ‘small, lazy creek’ (163) has been here for hundreds of years. It
didn’t start as a creek running along San Jacinto Boulevard in the
middle of a busy campus. In fact, not much more than a century, ago,
there was no campus, just the developing city of Austin. Not long
before that, there were no Americans here. Before that, no America.
Just since the existence of mankind, many different people, many
different types of people, have lived here, traveled through here,
admired this creek, bathed in or drank from its waters, or trod across
this land before there even wasa creek. Prehistoric Asians, American
Indians, Spanish, English, French, Americans, and (more recently)
people from virtually every other country and ethnicity have lived
here, from 2 million years ago (128) to today, to me. That is an
incredible number of people who have changed and marked this place,
whether with just a footprint (like most) or with the dedication of
‘many years (now approaching 50)’ (170), as Joe Jones did.
Would this place be vastly different if one or two (or even 100 or 200)
of those people hadn’t been here? Probably not. But the combined change
caused by all those people would add up over time. But I have not even
considered anything before humans. All of the animals—the fish,
squirrels, birds, dinosaurs, “Mososaurs, Dimetrodons, Quetzalcoatluses,
shellfish, Plesiosuars, Pteradactyls,” (135-136) beetles, ants,
mosquitoes, snakes—have caused at least as much (if not more) change as
humans. This is their land’ we’re just borrowing it. They were the ones
who created (although inadvertently) the limestone upon which I sit,
the predecessors of the fish that dart beneath my feet and the
mosquitoes which suck my blood. They were here for millions of years
before us and will probably be here for millions of years after us. We
must care for it while we are here or else it won’t be ours for very
long.
This still doesn’t really answer where I am, though. I am in a place
that has a rich history, yes. But aren’t all places like that, if you
dig deep enough? I know very little about where I am geographically. I
know I’m in Austin, on the UT campus, etc, etc. I also know where I’m
not: this is not Ohio; I’m quite far from home. This is not Spain or
Costa Rica or New York. This isn’t even Dallas or Amarillo. This is
‘central Travis County…in Austin…The creek is an area characterized by
a rolling terrain and expansive clay soils. Although situated in an
urban area, the creek is near a variety of vegetation, including oak
and juniper trees’ (162). So I’m in a sort of natural preserve, a place
that ‘has survived the abuse and neglect of town’ (163). I’m sitting
with my feet in a creek in a university with over 50,000 students. I’m
at UT. I’m in Texas. I’m in nature and civilization at the same time.
And yet, strangely enough, I’m home.”
I do feel more at home now. I’ve gotten used to my small room; now it
seems cozy, not cramped. I know people and places around campus and
I’ve made great friends. Even though I’m just one of 52,000 here, I’m
finding my niche so that I can grow and flourish in my years here at
U.T. |
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