Some scientists say global warming is killing the polar bears. The scientific reasons are being debated, but I have a troubling sense that not enough people are concerned.

I’ve always had a connection with nature that I didn’t quite understand. The feeling I get when I’m out in a beautiful landscape is almost overwhelming. My mind clears and becomes serene. It’s this natural high that fuels my desire to treat our earth with respect and dignity. The product of this feeling has been my constant concern with how we, as a world, can help preserve our earth. I’ve always been more interested in the arts rather than math and science, which led me to University of Maryland and a double major of Journalism and English.

One of my English courses studied how a targeted audience of a cinema can become liberated through the experience of film. A documentary film can capture the audience in an isolated and illusory environment that puts the rational of daily life on hold. The result is the viewer feeling liberated and passionate about the subject at hand. The concept of a film being such an interactive experience made me realize that broadcast journalists are creating a similar experience. The audience trusts the talent and gets absorbed in the subject as a package unfolds a story.

In recent years, I’ve had a vision of becoming a documentary film maker and researching major issues to inform the public about the truth on the subject. However, I also realized that I knew little to nothing about what was already going on with my “passion,” of environmental issues. Despite being fairly uninformed, I still had a burning passion inside that just knew I would succeeded in this field. I just didn’t know how yet.

Then, one night I volunteered to help film an author giving a speech at a local high school. I was there to get more experience using the camera, but what I learned that night was much more valuable than the technical skills. The author was Richard Louv and the topic was “Nature Deficit Disorder.” Besides promoting his new book on the same topic, he explained to the audience that he believes children are spending too much time inside with technology. He described his child hood of playing outdoors and the indescribable connection with nature he developed. His fear of a generation spending no time outside is that they won’t build a connection with nature and won’t care what the earth will amount to. Who will care about the earth if no one growing up truly experiences it? I share his fear. I now realize that I don’t really have to understand the science behind global warming. All I need to understand is that I have an intense passion for nature and I have the power to help others develop the same passion.

My final semester of college, my partner, Kate Russell, and I created a 30 minute documentary on the Appalachian Trail. This extremely time consuming project may have been the most valuable journalistic experience I had in college. We had to juggle jobs, other classes and commuting to film locations over the course of a semester. We gained the raw experience of editing for hours upon hours into the night, for several nights in a row. Computers crashed, files lost and scenes compromised. Regardless, we toughed it out to finish our film. Journalism is a field of vision and perseverance. I believe will optimism and hard work, anyone can turn their vision into a completed project.

The setting sun shines through a spider web

Upon graduation in June of 2008, two of my buddies and myself departed on a road trip. Our hopes were to see America over the span of a year. We're about 4 months into our trip and now grounded in Telluride, Colorado for the winter. On our way we met loads of amazing people and seen wonderful scenery. We've experienced first hand that society is still intrinsically positive and supportive.

I didn't spend as much time taking photographs and videos as I'd hoped while traveling, but I did do a lot of writing. Now that I'm grounded in a community I'm doing my best to get involved in the journalism and cinema fields again. I'm working with documentarian, James Kleinert, to help him with his current films, which can be found at www.movingcloud.com, www.spiritridersmovie.com. I'm grounded, excited and in the "real world." I have passion and drive to get more experience in journalism. I'll be stationed in Telluride until mid April. Then the plan is to continue traveling and see the rest of America.