Effects of the Outdoors

Mara Parks, who has always had a strong connection to the outdoors, shares stories from her friends about their outdoor experiences. She also discusses the benefits of being outside for both mental and physical well-being, and how childhood exposure to the outdoors can influence our preferences as adults. Overall, spending time outside is beneficial and most people are better off increasing their outdoor activities. Hey everyone, my name is Mara Parks and I have always felt an intense connection to the outdoors. My parents always made sure that it was a big part of my early childhood, which has influenced me to this day. My dad is a fly fishing guide and outfitter, so I have spent the summer on boats for many years of my life. In the past summers, I've spent an increasing amount of time by the water or in the woods because I started to realize that's where I am happiest. I took a gap year in between high school and college, and my whole goal for that year was to be as outside as much as possible. I would be in the car on the way out of the mountains, planning what I was going to do the next day. My job over the summer was as a nanny for one of the coolest people I know. My gas and snack money was provided, so all I had to do was take this girl on some amazing adventures. She's 11 now, so we were able to do some things that we were not able to do this summer before. I was with her at least three days a week, and almost all those days were spent in the water. I would plan the day ahead of time, and we would get snacks, load up our gear, and head to the lake or river or a ghost town or even the National Bison Range. Some days were spent in the backyard pool or in the neighborhood pond where you can hear the birds chirping quietly in the background. I know that I am not the only one who feels this connection between us and the earth. Many people have their own stories. I started by interviewing some of my friends and teammates about their outdoor experiences. My goal was to compare the stories from people with different outdoor exposure throughout their lifetime and see if there was any correlation between how they chose to spend their time now and their outdoor exposure in their youth. My friend Antonio Williams tells me about how when he was younger, he would go to church camp. It was held in the woods, and he looks back on the hill and giant slip and slide very fondly. The coolest thing was, there was this massive field, and there was this 100 foot slip and slide down like this. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, they would get like a fire hose and like spray it all over, yeah, and they would have gallons of soap, and like run, and you would literally slide down, it was like a slight incline. You would slide all the way down that thing, and then at the bottom there was like a, like pool of just water and soap, and it was crazy, but yeah, that was probably like my favorite outdoor experience, because like the cabins were kind of not the place to be, so like we were just always outside for like a week straight, and it was super fun. I then talked to my teammate Nathan Simicich. I'm Nathan Simicich. Nathan told me a story about an incident with a dock splinter. When I was about eight or nine, I was at my grandparents' place on a lake here in Washington State, and I was going on the dock, and I got this nasty wood splinter, and my mom always kept trying to take it out, and I just refused because I thought it would hurt, and I just dealt with it the whole day, and then when I went home, I fell asleep. My mom went in my room and got her all utensils out and dug in my foot and took the sliver out, and then I woke up, and it was not there anymore. She just completely did it when I was asleep. Antonio and Nathan's stories show us that when we're young, being outside is very beneficial. Antonio's story shows us that when we were kids, our exposure to the outdoors was very memorable, and Nathan's story shows us that even our bad outdoor experiences can affect us today. The next person I interviewed was my friend Katie Wollin. Hi, my name is Katie Wollin, and I'm a first-year student here at Western. When I asked her about her favorite outdoor experience, she told me about her goats at home and how much she misses them. My favorite outdoor place is anywhere with my goats in Hawaii. Being with them was the funnest thing ever. They are herd animals, so they would follow me around, so I would go and lay down in some grass somewhere, and they would just nibble around me in a circle, and I would just hear nibbling of grass. Anywhere with them outside is fun, going on walks with them. I grew up in Hawaii, so that's kind of where a lot of my memories are, kind of in the country land of Hawaii. How long did you have your goats? I had my goats for about four years until I had to, or my family moved, and I had to give them away. Aw, so sad. It's okay, I'm sure you look back on it fondly. Yeah, I do. They definitely taught me a lot about just being present in the moment. Katie's story is interesting because she decided to tell me a story that is a bit more recent. It shows that we can be greatly affected by experiences no matter when they occur. After interviewing my friends, I did some research on why exactly being outdoors makes us feel so good. According to the article, The Wellness Benefits of the Great Outdoors, published by the U.S. Forest Service and the USDA, being outside can increase both mental and physical well-being. It says that being outdoors supports an active and healthy lifestyle, which has shown to increase life expectancy, improve sleep quality, and reduce cancer risk. This addresses the physical aspect of our feelings about being outside, but what about the mental? Some of the mental benefits of being outdoors are a lower risk of depression and faster psychological stress recovery, along with restoring and strengthening our mental capacities and increasing focus and attention. All this information points to the fact that most of us are better off spending some more time outside. I want to compare my friends' stories with what they decide to fill their time with now. I asked each of them a question, how do you think your exposure to the outdoors as a child affects you today? And their answers are right in line with my theory. I went into this project having a basic assumption that being exposed to the outdoors as a kid would cause us as adults to crave being outdoors more than others. Nathan and Antonio enforced my assumption, while Katie was borderline. When I asked Antonio about this, he said, I wasn't outside a lot unless I was doing sports, so now I only go outside for sports or I don't go outside. So you choose to spend your time inside most of the time? Yeah, for sure. What's your favorite activities to do? I really enjoy sleeping, reading, eating, you know, the essentials. You like video games too, right? Yeah, video games for sure. When I asked Nathan the same question, his response was, I definitely was raised around water and being outside, so I always enjoy my free time now going out and being by the lake or by the beach. But when I asked Katie, her response was a bit different. She talked more about how even though she spent a lot of time outdoors back home, she hasn't been able to indulge enough here because of school. She did say, though, how being outside makes her feel. Being outside I think makes me feel like really grateful and just like kind of it helps me enjoy the present moment and just like realize like how big the world is, so it kind of grounds me. I would say it also makes me feel very relaxed because it's just like, especially if I'm like on the area where it's like big open fields or trees, it's very, just like a calming experience. On this note, I want to say that no matter if you enjoy being outside or not, it's true that we are physically predisposed to react positively to it. And based on these stories, the amount of outdoor exposure a kid has greatly influences the amount of time that we spend outside as an adult. Thank you for listening.