I Choose to LearnMegan miller

Geography 131.001

CELL PHONE AND TIME: Introduction

• At first, I was taken aback by the assignment. It is amazing to see that of all of the challenging assignments given to college students, the last assignment they want to complete is one where they may have to put down their phone for a couple of days. Surely, giving up one of the modern day’s greatest tools is difficult for young adults that have grown to heavily rely on their devices, but it is important to step back and not become absorbed into the “four inch world.” To me, the terrifying black hole is social media. Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more, the ease of these sites on our mobile devices is what challenges us to keep in touch with the world around us. For this assignment, I kept my phone for all of the things it gives me like a camera, an alarm clock, a telephone, but I stayed clear of all the apps that pull me away from the actual world.

CELL PHONE AND TIME• I chose to complete this assignment on the Friday, Saturday,

and Sunday of Thanksgiving break as my family was going camping at Fairfield State Park. It just so happened that I had no service which was good so that I was not tempted. I noticed that all of my family’s phones, my brother, my cousin, my boyfriend’s and my parents phones would end up stacking up on the picnic table because no one had a use for them as we were exploring Fairfield Lake and hiking the forest. The few times my brother was able to get service, he secluded himself in his tent on Instagram or texting his friends. I wondered if that was how I was whenever I was on my phone. I realized how grateful my parents were to have me sitting around the campfire visiting and catching up with them after my time at college. The weekend did not seem to go by slower, but seemed to be more meaningful when I didn’t have to have my cell phone in hand at all times.

PERSONAL ECOLOGY: Introduction

• Growing up, I never really grasped the concept of what adults would call consumerism. I did not understand why some people got to have more Christmas presents than other people, why some families went out to eat all of the time and mine did not, and why kids at my school could not afford simple things like pencils and paper. My father has always been rather strict with our family’s money. My brother and I were raised to keep savings in mind at all times and to assess every purchase. I feel lucky to have been raised by my father and his habits so that when coming into college I am loan free and still have money to travel and enjoy school.

PERSONAL ECOLOGY

• Thanks to my father, I have started a running list of all of my spending since I came the Nacogdoches in August. The reoccurring item that I cannot seem to kick over anything is getting Chickfila more than twice a week. That $6.70 out of my pocket almost three times week adds up and even though I think about it every time I purchase my 8-count meal, I can’t help myself. That is $1,045.20 a year! That could pay for my upcoming trip to Hawaii without much extra saving! Even through tracking my habits, saving is hard to do. Being able to see all the money I could have saved by not getting so many unnecessary things preps me for the new year to save more money for the future.

NEW YORK TIMES: Introduction

• I have always been quite a “scaredy-cat” when it comes to the world around me. I was raised in a cookie-cutter neighborhood in a white neighborhood with two happily married parents and then I was in 11th grade and suddenly became shell-shocked. I was introduced to a new group of friends. One was the first American citizen in his family that had traveled from Pakistan, one was born in Indonesia and was raised their until the age of five, many of them raised any many countries such as Scotland, Mexico, and Bolivia. After being introduced to those people, I became more aware that more of this world was available to me outside of the United States. That is what sparked my interest in research, news, and journalism or world events.

NEW YORK TIMES

• If I have to thank this class for anything, it would be for prompting me look at the New York Times daily. I downloaded the app on the first day of class and not only do I feel more informed by looking at what is happening around me, but I also feel more like a citizen. By knowing about the triumphs as well as tragedy that surrounds me, I feel more educated and equipped to go through my day and have intelligent conversations with those around me. In the midst of trying times all over the world from Ukraine to Hong Kong to Ferguson right here in the United States, the world is being faced with challenged that are old and new. When these problems are not known by young people, they can not be solved by young people which is a disadvantage to our generation. I am happy to be a part of the active and educated youth.

FIELD TRIPS: Introduction

• When I first came to SFA, I was surprised by all of the beautiful parts of Nacogdoches that I was never exposed to when I came to visit. Places such as the SFA Mast Arboretum could have made my decision of which college to attend to infinitely easier. Part of the fun of moving to a new place is exploring what is all around and that is why I was interested in this experience. I would consider Dr. Roth to be somewhat of a “cab driver” for our World Geography class as he is telling us the must see places.

Java Jacks

• Java Jacks was a place that I had driven by numerous times since I first came to Nacogdoches when I was a junior in high school, but I never actually went inside. When I finally went, it was exactly what I was expecting and that is definitely a good thing. The baristas were friendly as was the atmosphere. It is so interesting that we have so many different atmospheres in Nacogdoches, from bars for Friday nights to coffee shops for Sunday mornings.

Friendship Cemetery• As Americans, we like to believe

that racism has ended, but as intellectual members of society we cannot follow that ignorance. Racism is easy to see in other parts of the country where riots are beginning from disputes between law enforcement. When seeing the Friendship Cemetery it is hard to argue that racism and discrimination does not exist when you see people clearly segregated even after death. What is more astonishing is that even though this graveyard is part of the past, it is also part of the present as people buried this year are still being placed inside of fences by race.

Dextra• The town of Dextra was hard to find and

I am still unsure if we actually found it, but through our adventure we found many other interesting things. It is so different to see a town with only a church, a post office, and a vending machine with vacant dilapidated houses surrounding it. We found the town of Sacul and stopped to ask for directions, but there was no one in the town center, all the stores closed, all the doors locked. We went to where the maps lead us the Dextra to find two old buildings and a church on a dirt road. These are things you do not see in Houston and it really caught me off guard that no one felt the need to keep up with these buildings.

Lanana Creek Trail• The first week that I moved

to Nacogdoches I discovered Lanana Creek as a part of the campus along with the arboretum and the azalea maze. I was amazed by the extensive preservation of beautiful nature. I did not realize that their was such a large trail that ran across the creek. I think everyone's life should include more exploring. In the process of finding the trail, we found a garden center that was worth taking a stroll through.

Zion Hill Cemetery, Church, Neighborhood

• Zion Hill was probably the most interesting of the field trip destinations to me. You could tell that the whole area was some what hit with poverty at some point. The number of “unknown” tombstones in Zion Hill Cemetery was astonishing. We happened to take a wrong turn into a community of small colorful homes that were extremely small and dilapidated.

Zion Hill CemeteryZion Hill Neighborhood