By Derya, Semester 62
The first week of our Bridged Curriculum is all about origin stories. Students read origin stories from many cultures and discuss their meaning and impact. They then are given an assignment in Environmental Science Class to write their own “Science Origin Story,” which you can read below.
I have always been drawn to the wild places of the world, particularly those of the wet variety. I first saw the Aegean Sea through my still rather new pair of eyes when I was seven weeks old, and first experienced it at only six months old. My mother grew up with the sea, in fact, with a much cleaner version of it: The Aegean as it once was, before the Çeşme tourism boom. She came to love it as an intrinsic part of her life. That same deep love and appreciation for the sea lives in me now, transported through an upbringing filled with stories and lessons about that same beautiful sea. It is one of the very few places in the world where I can truly relax, forget my fears, and simply watch the bottoms of the waves 20 feet above.
In those stories were also tales of India, of the Himalayas and the Holy River, the Hvedhi Hari Ganga, of the monkey god Hanuman, told by my father. Together, my parents raised me to truly appreciate the environment around me, a view that I wholeheartedly adopted and built upon as I got older, with my personal philosophy of appreciating the wonder of everything in life, however small. From stories at bedtime, to working in the garden, to my grandmother’s wise words and old fishing tales, I owe it all to my family.
