This World and Me

On the first day of my freshman orientation for undergrad, my orientation leader gave us icebreaker questions to answer. One of them was "what is your favorite animal?". I thought for a second. Since elementary school, I had a particular fondness for grizzly bears because there's something incredibly charming about the intersection of fluffiness and clumsiness. It would also be a particularly relevant choice, since my university's sports team is called the California Golden Bears. However, as I thought about how to respond to this question, I realized that one animal has since overtaken the grizzly bear as my favorite animal. It was one that I had read about, wrote about, and actively admired. After all, the creature is the  fastest animal on the Earth , and its continued existence today is among the greatest triumphs in the history of environmental protection. Confident in my decision, I smiled and scribbled down my answer and returned it to my orientation leader. ...

From sixth grade through my freshman year of high school, I played the alto saxophone. My school district required its students to participate in some form of performing art during this time. Some students chose choir, some chose orchestra, I chose band. For me, it was a toss-up between the alto sax and going to orchestra and playing the cello (I love the sound of the cello, and it was also my middle school orchestra director's instrument – he claimed the cello's range best represents the vocal pitch range of the human voice). The primary reason I chose band was because my dad had claimed the sax was a "cool" instrument. I trusted his judgment. I liked playing the sax. There were a few pieces our middle school concert band played that had saxophone solos, and I had the honor of playing one or two of them. I'll actually never forget the moment when I was finished with the concert, and the string orchestra director, who was also my cross country coach, came up to ...