(via flickr user fadedfilmstrips)
Goood morning, SuperForesters!
Every year, seniors in the urban studies and planning program at UCSD display their 6 month long research projects at an Urban Expo. A couple days ago, my professor emailed me asking me to be one of the speakers at this event (which took place today). I was thrilled, but with finals coming up next week and with considerably short notice to prepare something to say, I was also a bit hesitant. But my professor obviously knows me well for as I continued to read the email, I saw it: “…you could also mention your work with SuperForest if you like.”
Ah! How could I say no? I didn’t know what I was going to say, but I knew I’d regret it if I turned it down. And last night, when I was beginning to reach the “Oh my God, I still don’t know what I’m going to say and this thing is tomorrow!” stage of the prepping process, I received an email from SuperForester Justice asking me to describe SuperForest. Now, I’ve attempted to define SuperForest many many times…and always have had trouble with it. Even so, procrastination from speechwriting got the best of me and I pushed all thoughts of the Urban Expo event aside and dove into answering Justice’s question.
Q: In a nutshell, what does SF aim to do?
A: Justice, asking me what SuperForest is or what it wants to do is probably one of the toughest questions one could ever ask me. It’s like asking someone what they want to do with their life. Sure you have broad, overarching goals and generic answers but you never can say specifics (be it because of a fear of not actually accomplishing them, or a fear of them limiting you in any way, or the most likely of all reasons being that those are the types of questions you spend your entire life trying to figure out. Well, that’s how it is for me, if you were to ask me what I want to do with my life, I wouldn’t be able to give you a specific answer.)
SuperForest is about the personal journeys 19 individuals from around the world are taking to live lives of positivity and kindness and service. It’s about us sharing those experiences and those things that make us happy and as a result, it is a story of ever expanding growth. SuperForest is about learning, it does amazing things to boost confidence and make you feel like you can do anything, it’s about trying big things, about making mistakes, and about having friends around to take a few deep breaths with you whenever you feel overwhelmed and help you carry on.
For a long time, I saw it as a project, or as something fun to do. But time has proven that the more you give to this site, the more it gives back. And I can say that as time has progressed, my devotion and dedication to it has grown exponentially and now it’s reached the point where I can no longer tell where my “SuperForester” life ends and begins. It’s a crazy feeling…as a SuperForester you constantly feel empowered, you feel energetic, and of course, you feel positive. Ultimately, the main goal is to share this feeling with as many people out there as possible. To teach and uplift SuperForest readers and doers (SuperForesters) to the point where they’d feel inspired enough to do something similar and spread it around just as we have.
Funny enough, this response would end up being the foundation of my speech, but more details on the actual event are coming up tomorrow.
Hope everyone is having a good day, thank you for the continued inspiration.
-C
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