The Power of Company, by Abby Fernandez

While I was at white Clay this past week, I was walking among the muddy trails that were once dry and dusty from the blistering heat when I was last there earlier this year.  Most of the big trees that were lush and lively seemed very bare and dull due to the colder months. The sky was quite grey and seemed to be full of clouds but empty in terms of any sunlight. It was very quiet while hiking except for the occasional scurry of a squirrel in the bushes or the wind causing  the branches  to make that oh so unsettling creaky noise. I arrived at my favorite spot, being the waterfall, and watched as the water poured down  from the surplus of rain earlier that day. While doing so, I quickly spotted a hawk seeking food within the woods of the park. It was flying through the grey sky so seamlessly, its huge dark wings contrasting beautifully against the pale stormy sky.  It seemed to be having some trouble scouting out its next meal and looked as though it was starting to give up, looking increasingly more tired and worn out by the second.  Soon enough another hawk joined in to help. Eventually both hawks stopped their search and landed on a large jagged rock in front of me, still and simply taking in their surroundings together. This lasted for about an hour, pure silence as the birds sat keeping eachother company. After collecting their thoughts, the bird who was once alone in search of a meal seemed to develop a second wind, and both birds took flight in a mission together to find their dinner.  While sitting and observing these birds I began to think of a study I learned about in my communications class last year. We were told that when a experiment was conducted on a monkey who had to pick between food or the presence of another monkey in order to survive, it consistently chose the company of another monkey. Suddenly I began to apply this study to my own life while also keeping those hawks in mind.  Recently I have been struggling with some personal issues in my life, isolating myself completely from friends and family. However, when I got back to school I realized it was only making matters worse, and I finally built up the courage to leave my dorm and hang with my amazing friends here at the University of Delaware. To my surprise, a night of playing Twister and engaging in  stimulating conversation, made it seem as if my anxiety and depression had never even existed in the first place. My lethargic and tired self had got a second wind of life just like that once lonely hawk I had seen at white clay.  I felt alive and present again, emotions  that have felt foreign to me for quite some time.  After coming back to my dorm that night, similarly to the two hawks, I sat in my own thoughts for some time in silence and just let myself be. Doing this, I began to think of how beautiful it is that every living being in this world is so complex and different, yet are so extremely similar as well. Isn’t it just crazy that I felt as though I could emotionally relate  to both a monkey and hawk while being in such contrasting circumstances and overall not even being within the same species. Sometimes all it takes is just a moment in  time with yourself, some company and nature to ponder life in order to realize how precious it really is. I have come to the realization of how easy it is to get caught up in such little inconveniences and irrelevant things happening around us rather than taking a second to appreciate what incredible opportunities and people the world has to offer us. Additionally, so many of  the acts seen in nature truly reflect human necessity and mankind in such a multitude of ways.  Nature is just constantly working together… constantly keeping eachother company. Whether it be the rain nourishing all of the soil within white clay, or the sunlight allowing all of the trees to keep growing, housing so much wildlife in the park, such as  the dynamic duo of hawks I discovered, or even the brown bushy squirrels that wander the campus with us everyday. Thus, not only do humans thrive off of the prescence of others, but so do all other walks of life, which is truly a reassuring and refreshing feeling.

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