A few months ago, I decided to accept a short-term job at a non-profit in New York City. The job itself was so exciting; I would be working with a Nobel Prize-winning author (who happened to be one of my personal heroes), doing work for his humanitarian foundation. I was ecstatic.
But as cool as the actual work would be, the idea of spending almost every day of my summer commuting back and forth from my house in Connecticut to New York City was less than thrilling.
As someone who loves being outside and loves exploring, I never thought I would be able to give four hours of my day to Metro North. That commuting time, combined with the number of hours I’d be spending in the office, meant that I’d be losing, on average, 48 hours of valuable summer daylight each week. That’s almost 200 hours a month without hiking, swimming, or hanging out with my dog at the lake. This was a far cry from working with Richard on “Born to Explore” -- the whole idea behind the book is to get people off their computers and outside!
But as cool as the actual work would be, the idea of spending almost every day of my summer commuting back and forth from my house in Connecticut to New York City was less than thrilling.
As someone who loves being outside and loves exploring, I never thought I would be able to give four hours of my day to Metro North. That commuting time, combined with the number of hours I’d be spending in the office, meant that I’d be losing, on average, 48 hours of valuable summer daylight each week. That’s almost 200 hours a month without hiking, swimming, or hanging out with my dog at the lake. This was a far cry from working with Richard on “Born to Explore” -- the whole idea behind the book is to get people off their computers and outside!
Author and her dog at a local lake
However, one big misconception that I bought into prior to meeting Richard is that “being outdoors” means that you have to be in an area with woods, lakes, and parks. Truth is, cities like New York have tons of cool outdoor exploration possibilities. If you comb through the pages of the book, you’ll find, just as I did, all the different ways to make outdoor exploration work for you, wherever you are and whatever your situation might be.
For example, thousands of commuters (including myself) pass through Grand Central Terminal every single day. In our hustle to and from the office, it’s easy to miss that its limestone walls are home to tons of different marine fossils from the Jurassic era.
However, one big misconception that I bought into prior to meeting Richard is that “being outdoors” means that you have to be in an area with woods, lakes, and parks. Truth is, cities like New York have tons of cool outdoor exploration possibilities. If you comb through the pages of the book, you’ll find, just as I did, all the different ways to make outdoor exploration work for you, wherever you are and whatever your situation might be.
For example, thousands of commuters (including myself) pass through Grand Central Terminal every single day. In our hustle to and from the office, it’s easy to miss that its limestone walls are home to tons of different marine fossils from the Jurassic era.
Inside Grand Central Terminal
In addition to fossils, you can find some pretty cool living, breathing organisms and species all over the “urban jungle.” In 2003, Richard and a friend ran a 24-hour Bio-Blitz in Central Park, and not only discovered over 800 existing species, but also found 202 new species of life that had never before been identified.
There are also several different and unusual forms of life in the many different nature preserves within the city, such as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Here, in addition to the typical plants native to New York, you can also see several non-native plant species that can unexpectedly grow and flourish in this type of climate, like palm trees.
Richard and friends during the 2003 Bio-Blitz
If animals are more your thing, there’s a cool World Wildlife Fund web site listed in the book where you can search by your town or city to see just how many different species are documented in your area (http://www.worldwildlifefund.org/wildfinder/searchByPlace.cfm). I ran a quick search using my hometown zip code in Fairfield, CT, and discovered that I share my neighborhood with 376 different kinds of animals. I then checked out my office zipcode (right next to Central Park) and was surprised and excited to see that I got the same result.
Wildlife exists all over this planet, even in the most unexpected places. So even if your backyard is primarily concrete, it’s worth heading outside to see what you can find.
Wildlife exists all over this planet, even in the most unexpected places. So even if your backyard is primarily concrete, it’s worth heading outside to see what you can find.
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