Self-discovery Podcast (Laney, Cam, Evita, Zach)

This podcast episode is about self-discovery through nature. The hosts discuss their personal connections with animals and the ocean, and how these experiences have contributed to their understanding of themselves. They talk about how they have grown and changed through these connections, and how self-discovery is an ongoing journey. The hosts also highlight the importance of knowing oneself and the positive impact it can have on one's life. They conclude that everyone has the stamina to discover themselves and that self-discovery is a continuous process. Have you ever felt connected to a certain part of nature, like an animal or a plant? If you have, then welcome to our podcast about self-discovery. My name is Lainey. My name is Cam. My name is Zach. And my name is Avita. Today, we're diving into self-discovery by exploring our connections with nature. And also discuss how our life experiences contribute to this journey of self-understanding. For example, I related myself to the camel that we both had the stamina in an extreme environment. I shared my connection to nature in identifying with chameleons and snakes, from mimicking a chameleon's adaptive behavior to embracing change like a snake shedding its skin. I talked about my connection with self-discovery through the ocean. And because of the simple fact that I don't know fully about the ocean, I also don't know fully about myself. And I talked about how a family of dolphins called a paw kind of relates to me and my family. So, Lainey, can you talk a little more about the nature connection you mentioned in your vignette? Yeah, so in my vignette, I related myself to the two animals, chameleons and snakes, like I previously said. On the chameleons, I related myself to an experience I had. I was more introverted and insecure, so I kind of blended in with my environment to basically survive in high school and freshman year. And then I kind of talked about how a snake sheds its skin. So during the summer last year and going into this year, I shed a lot of my old self and really came into my new person, becoming more confident and knowing more about myself because I let go of that old, like, quote, skin. So, like, how do you feel when you're around this specific part of nature? Well, when I'm around snakes, it's kind of a disconnect because I am petrified of snakes, so I would not say that I relate to them and love them in that way. Chameleons, I don't feel a particular way either. It's kind of just a cute little animal, so I would say I relate more to the facts about them and the way they survive in society, in their environment, and I don't really feel a particular way for either of them except for my fear of snakes. And how has this experience or peace of nature made you grow or change? I think they haven't made me more change. It's more the idea that I have changed. I relate to them. A snake, they change because their skin sheds and it's kind of like an old self leaving them. So, I relate to the snake in that way, and I grew as a person, I changed as a person. And a chameleon, I changed from being more of a chameleon to a snake, so I'm not as blended with my environment so much anymore. So, Cam, what is your connection to nature? So, my connection is basically just connecting myself to the ocean and how we don't know more than, like, half of the ocean. The ocean covers 71% of the Earth's surface. So, I feel like when we don't know half about that, I also don't know half about myself because of the fact that it's just, there's always more to yourself that you always find out. Do you think, like, you're ever going to figure out everything by yourself, like, fully discover yourself? I don't think I will ever fully discover myself because as you get older, you kind of just learn new things about yourself. You also like more things, you dislike more things, you know, and everything just starts to change. Definitely. Have you had a particular experience with the ocean that you hold on to, like, either good or bad? I wouldn't say I have a particular experience, mostly from TV shows because I'm more of, like, a pool type of person. I will go on the beach and whatnot, you know, the ocean, it looks nice, but I would rather not be in the ocean. I feel that. Yeah. Interesting. Okay, Zach, what is your vignette about? My vignette is about an experience I had in Hawaii when I was around dolphins and it was a meaningful experience and I wrote about it because I was looking at, like, a pod of dolphins while I was in my pod, which was my family, and it was pretty great. Is there any disconnections with your place of nature? The only disconnect there really is that I don't like dolphins very much. It kind of scares me. Common theme with you and Cameron? Yeah. How did you feel with your experience with, like, when you were around that pod of dolphins and also with your family? I guess I feel safe when I'm around my family and that experience, that's probably one of my favorite, like, things I've ever done in my life. It was just, like, an amazing moment. Amita, what's your vignette about? My vignette is about first I wrote about an experience with the camels, that I rode a camel in Inner Mongolia and I can really feel connect with them because when I talked to my mom about it, I really enjoyed this trip. The camel just started to walk faster and then, like, swept his head, so I can feel, like, a strong connection with them that they know what I'm talking about. And the second part is I talked about I had a trip to a very cold place in China, and then that trip is about the ice skating practice. And the first day we arrived there, I got a really bad fever, so I would not be able to practice with my teammates. But at that time, the competition is, like, a really big thing to me, and I'm, like, aggressive person in all the, like, the competition. So at that time, like, I thought about the camel, like, they had the stamina to walk in extreme desert for, like, 15 days. So I just thought about the camel and I practiced with my teammates. So while you're researching, did you learn any, like, cool or interesting facts about camels? Yes, I was shocked about this fact because the camel can be dehydrated for, like, 15 days, so that's, like, a kind of cool thing, but I'm kind of scared. So how did you feel when you were around camels? I really related to the camels because they also, like, they traveled a long distance to be beside me. And then I also, through my life, I traveled a long time, so I can really feel connect with the camel that the stamina, like, keeps us going forward. So do you have any disconnects with the camel? Yes, definitely. Like, what I talked about, the cool facts about the camel, they can be dehydrated for 15 days and they can still walk. But for me, although I have the stamina to do the things, I still need other things to support me. Like, maybe when I'm doing homework, I need some snacks. Or when I was doing sports, I need, like, my teammates to cheer on me and I need water. Yeah. Very interesting. So after talking about all of our vignettes, we came up with a common theme, which is the theme of our podcast, which is self-discovery. I think all of our vignettes connect in a way where all of us are finding ourselves through nature. Cam with the ocean, Zach with his family, Avita with a camel and its stamina, and me with connecting myself to two animals and the way they survive in their environment. And then I think all of our nature things kind of, like, changed our lives. Maybe we, through these nature things, we learned something from them and then they would still keep us forward to our lives. And then maybe we'll be more positive and then looking forward to do something in the future. Definitely. It definitely made us grow as a person and find part of ourselves. And I think that's really important, self-discovery as a whole, because it's really important to know yourself. It's important to know what you like, your authentic self. It's important overall to know who you are as a person, your morals. I kind of like that you said you can grow through it, because I feel like every day, well, not every day, but most of the time we hear about someone connecting, someone, like, discovering something new in the ocean. And I feel like every day I can grow by discovering something new about myself. And we all learn something new about ourselves when talking about our piece of nature. For example, I learned that people go through a long journey of self-discovery and sometimes they regress, sometimes they progress, and it's just a big journey that we're all on. And I learned that everyone has the stamina to do things, but some people might didn't discover themselves pretty well, so we still need to discover ourselves and then we all have the stamina to do things and we need to keep that up. I learned that everyone has layers to themselves and that we can learn something new every day. And I've learned and thought more about how much my family means to me in my life. That concludes our podcast. Again, my name is Lainey. My name is Ovita. My name is Cam. My name is Zachary. And thank you for learning more about self-discovery. Thank you.