Making a new friend

Tree hugging is not something everyone is particularly accustomed to or comfortable with. Although I had never been up close to a tree before, I was excited about this activity. Tree hugging was always something I associated with hippies and nature lovers and never imagined myself doing. During one of our classes, we drove to Tanglewood Nature Center, found a small part of the forest and divided ourselves into groups of two. 

With the help of our partners, we had to blindfold ourselves and go around the forest to find “our tree”. The person who was not blindfolded had to lead their partner around the forest and pick a tree for them to hug. After padding the tree down, the individual who was blindfolded was brought back to a center point by their partner who was going to enjoy the next ten minutes of the activity. Brought back to the center point, the individuals’ blindfolds were removed and they had to wander around the forest to find their tree. 

Relying on my other senses rather than my vision made me really uncomfortable and confused in the location of my tree. While being blindfolded, I simply tried to focus on my walking, the surroundings of my tree, the amount of time we were walking from my tree to the center point, and the items I could feel on the ground while walking. Throughout the entire activity we had to trust our partners, both while being blindfolded and while trying to find our trees. We had to rely on our surroundings, listen and feel nature around us and we needed to make a connection with nature in order to succeed in this activity. Although this exercise was meant as a class event, I found it really insightful but mainly entertaining. It felt good not being stressed about schoolwork and being able to leave the classroom to enjoy a nice sunny day.

Before doing this exercise, I had never imagined learning so much from hugging a tree.