Walking Journal #13

I went to see my family this weekend in Carson City. I was so excited until I unexpectedly found out that my mom put my dog to sleep that Friday morning. Consequently, I took Friday off, I checked out mentally, and decided to talk a drive/walk to my favorite place in Carson, Old Clear Creek the following morning. My plate felt so full, I needed to collect my emotions and thoughts.

            As I drove through the windy road, I realized nature is my medicine for difficult situations. I parked my car and began to start my adventure across the creek, up the dirt hill, and eventually the rock wall. I thought about my parent’s houses in comparison to my apartment. No one ever broke into my car and I always kept it unlocked. No one ever dinged your door or put dents in it while parallel parking, but if they did, they would leave a card with their number instead of bailing out as fast as possible. Living in Reno was getting to me. I began to wonder why life is so crazy in college. I came up with a few different scenarios, the first being, all of the students are stressed out and get pushed to breaking points, maybe that is why they steal stereos or are so hostile. Second, almost all graduate schools expect students to get above a 3.8 GPA in college in order to go to that school. An example of this is medical school because my goal in life is to become a surgeon, but now the pressure is on and I must maintain an immaculate GPA just to learn how to become one. Finally, the third is sustaining academics while also partaking in some sort of a social life because yeah, maintaining academics can be easier without a social life, but life is not. Furthermore, I organized my thoughts and felt that in order to have a life in college, you must find that perfect balance between all of your components like working, homework, studying, friends, school, and especially grades.

            By the end of the walk, I made another goal that I need to complete and get right in order to accomplish becoming a surgeon. This goal being to try to find that balance, but always focus on school, maybe try to see friends while doing homework most of the time. If it all works out, than life will not be so bad, it will be a joy.

Walking blog # 12

My neighborhood is full of apartments and houses that act as duplexes or 4-plexes. I live in an apartment myself and it is the tallest of my neighborhood, 3 stories. Most of the other places are single stories or two stories. All of the buildings immediately around my neighborhood have a modern American family feel of the late 20^th Century because they most are built with two or more rooms, kitchens, and such and have wood and brick outsides to them. They are much different to other neighborhood because they are smaller in square footing and are not set in the best neighborhood. For example, the university’s dorms are huge, most are five stories. They are much cleaner and have parks or grass and plant, whereas our neighborhood does not have any grass lawns or parks nearby. Because we do not have a gated entrance, grassy lawns, and pillar entrance ways, one can say our neighborhood is part of the lower class.

            People want extravagant homes and décor to show how classy they are and rich. They want to live in a gated community so they can feel safe and comforted in their home. Consequently, architecture plays a huge role in our society because it shows value in regards to rich, poor, and middle classes as well as the historic essence of buildings. For instance, architecture can have certain textures or elements in it that highlight the quality of the building as well as the timeframe of when it was built. Furthermore, with architecture, our society can value areas where the textures and elements of building have importance to them, or they could simply not value based on those too.  

Walking blog # 11

 

I grew up in Carson City, NV and this weekend I came back home to be with my family. I started thinking about places that had history to them and value to me. I thought of one place in particular, Old Clear Creek Rd. This road is located behind Costco and used to be the road people used to get to Lake Tahoe from Carson City. It is only a two lane road, one going up and the other going down. It used to have huge trucks driving with logs from Tahoe to Carson when Carson was becoming more populated. There was also much traffic on the road because Tahoe was a major tourist attraction then, as it is today. The difference now is that Old Clear Creek is hardly ever used since Highway 50 has been built. The only people who drive on it are the few home owners that live on the road, about 10, and people like me who want to get away and take a beautiful drive in nature.

            This road is so unique in that it curves so much and has cliffs that people climb often, a creek that is great to take pictures at, and much wildlife that has not been destroyed like trees and animals. Since the road has been “out of commission” it environmentally prospers more than it did when it was the major road to Tahoe. If the road was still the road people travelled on to get to Tahoe than the wildlife would have greatly diminished, the water would be polluted, the creek would have less water if it would still even be there, and the construction would have changed the whole land and ecosystem. Thinking about this makes me wonder what the land looked like before Highway 50 was built and how much has been effected by that. Consequently, this historical road is similar in Highway 50 because they both have curves; however, the environment around Old Clear Creek is flourishing, whereas much of the forestry land immediately around Highway 50 has diminished.

 

 

 Just dropping into the creek valley

 Leaving Old Clear Creek