A Trip to the Coast
Group Statement, Sequoia Meyer, Kaitlyn Estep, Chloe Cane, and Amanda Pratt, AKA Bodacious Bombastic Banana Slugs
Bodacious Bombastic Banana Slugs
In an effort to represent our sense of place along the Olympic Coast as a group, we were drawn toward the powerful forces of the ocean. Dynamic movement and change caused by the waves affected not only the smaller ecosystems we found along the beach but toward us as a group as well. The feeling of movement and change within the environment affected our sense of place in many different ways… it’s almost as if we are in a similar competitive environment as in the tight quarters of a tide pool. The waves affect our place just as much as the enemy’s competitive space. We’re fighting just as much to hold on, knowing that we have no control, but hoping we can adapt.
Sequoia Meyer Personal Statement
“That young man over there has strong feet. Or maybe young woman?” Rialto Beach
I can’t remember being to the Washington coast before. I’m Washington born and raised, so how I’ve been through my life without the coast is beyond me. I grew up playing on waterfronts, and swearing by the beaches. I’ve been known to accidentally go knee deep in salt water whilst in my skinny denim jeans simply searching for rocks, simply because I couldn’t care less.
Stepping outside and onto the beaches I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the feeling of joy. Honestly, for a longer period of time than I’m used to. While on this trip I was already planning the next time I could be out here and this was before I had even really gotten here. Restlessly grabbing permits, taking pictures of maps and looking up longer hiking options. I watched other hikers enviously on Rialto beach, and at the Hoh Rain forest taking the majority of my field notes in interaction with hikers. I thought about all the skills I needed to to have to really coexist with the environment next time. I was ready for this place to be a place, my place. I was ready to have a place to share with the people I care about. I already knew it was somewhere special.
With the hope of someday becoming an outdoor educator, I was struck by the vastness of the Washington Peninsula I have yet to have experienced, how little of the outdoors I’ve known really at all. I refer to a conversation with a classmate, he explained that a pilgrimage to another country would be good for me. Yet I couldn’t help but think that there was so much I cared to discover here. So much I have yet to see within these woods, within these beaches.
Maybe it was the lengthy coast, the vastness of the ocean , maybe the weather, who know, but this trip was a huge kick in the butt. It encouraged me to go see what there is to see, and really learn what there is to see, and see what there is to really learn outdoors. To care about what there is to care about before it’s too late.
