Submitted by Patrick Tighe on the 2019 summer session program in Granada, Spain sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
For my entire life I have lived at the beach. My earliest memories are riding waves on a boogie board as a young boy in Ocean City, Maryland. As I grew older a lot changed, but the beach was something that always remained consistent. Around middle school years the boogie board turned into a body board. Once I hit high school, the body board turned into Spikeball, cornhole, and beach towels with my friends. As a senior in college, now my beach days are much less frequent due to work and school, but they are still as rewarding as ever. My love of the beach growing up seamlessly transitioned into a love of the environment in general. A few things worry me about my Mid-Atlantic home and the greater natural state of the world, namely: pollution, climate change, and the general invasiveness of humans on the natural gifts of the world.
As I grow older and greater travel opportunities present themselves, whether in the form of my increasing financial freedom or study abroad programs, I always take them. I want to see where in the world the wonders of nature are still wonderful. This is why when the opportunity to hike in the Sierra Nevada mountain range presented itself, I jumped at the opportunity. To say I was impressed would be an understatement.
To get to the Sierra Nevada hiking point, we took a bus up a windy road through the mountains to a small village. With some time to spare in the village, we stopped for breakfast at cafe that shared a wall with a small shop where a very nice old woman was selling scarves. Upon seeing that I was wearing shorts, she mentioned that I’d be well-suited to buy one of her home-made “mountain scarves” for only 10 euros. I could tell from her demeanor that she was really looking out for me and so I bought one — the quality of the scarf is superb. This is a refreshing change of pace from somewhat similar interactions at home. This woman was offering a cheap well-made product that in general would make my trip more enjoyable, at the beach on the other hand there are cookie cutter stores stacked one by one selling the same bold lettered “insert beach town here” overpriced and low quality tank tops. This was my first realization that rather than trying to make a profit on the environment around you ,there are people who generally appreciate the world and want you to do the same.
Once we reached the mountain range and began our hike, I immediately noticed there was not a single piece of plastic, any type of trash or pollution. There were no stands selling sodas, waters, and hotdogs. There were no vendors renting umbrellas, chairs, and jet-skis. Although I guess in this case, it would be walking sticks and atvs, but either way, none of the above. In fact, there was no proof that any human had ever been here before, with the welcome exceptions of a very small path and a wooden post at the peak of the mountain. This was refreshing. Here you could be outside and just…be outside. Had I not gone with a group, I would have heard no sounds other than the natural sounds of birds chirping, trees blowing in the wind, and wild goats pattering around on rocks.
Between the purely natural state of the area, the clear devotion to the preservation and wellbeing of the mountain range and its visitors by the townspeople, I realized that there is still hope for this world. The little village couldn’t have had more than 1000 inhabitants, but yet somehow, they managed to keep a large portion of the Sierra Nevada’s 5,000 miles of vast mountainous beauty clean and healthy. While it may be too late for me to change the East Coast beaches, I grew up loving back to their natural state; discovering the Sierra Nevada showed me that there are many more places around the world preserved and precious. And I want to see them all.
