Confidence Is Found Outside

As Dr. Heather E. Heying (“Dr. Heying is an evolutionary biologist and a former professor at Evergreen State College”) says in “Nature Is Risky. That’s Why Students Need It” (New York Times, 4-30-20218):

Over the course of several trips, I saw students rise to challenges in ways that they simply could not at home. I purposefully sought out field sites that were remote not just because nature is more interesting and intact in such places — more lianas climbing their way up to the light, more vine snakes mimicking those same lianas — but also because encountering nature in its least disturbed state often comes at the “cost” of having no connection to the outside world. Far from the virtual eyes that document our every move, people are revealed, to themselves and to others.

In the field, I watched students descend into their own darkness, depression gripping them, and I watched as they emerged from it, stronger and more grounded.