Describe an outdoor experience, either positive or negative, that has shaped your thinking about nature and the environment. 2. Provide a thoughtful response to this student post listed below, by commenting on details shared in their personal experience: An outdoor experience that had help me shape my thinking about nature and the environment is my trip to Gatlinburg Tennessee. Gatlinburg is a mountainous resort city; it is incredibly beautiful. I stayed at a resort that was near the woods. My routine was getting up at 6 am each morning and dragging the trail that was closest to our resort. I normally go a mile and turned around. It was refreshing, and I was able to breathe even better than when I was home because I am asthmatic. I was better focused and relaxed. Each encounter I had with the environment I became more alive and felt happier. Surprisingly one morning I decided to try a different trail that was closer to a stream, I stop in the middle of nowhere just to listen to the birds whistling and other insects crying and the water flowing downstream. It was like, I was out of touch with the outside world and in tune with nature for the first time in a long while. I recalled sitting on a stone that morning looking around just amazed as to how the woods had captured my attention. On my way back I saw different terrestrial animals. I was a little scared when a bear cross my path but that did not take away the experience I had. Up to this point every now and again I will walk in my neighborhood, but it is not the same. That experience had shaped my mind in a positive way. I became more appreciative of nature and that environment knowing that it can be therapeutic, refreshes the mind and it is called home to other creatures.