Prior to starting the environmental studies program (enst) at HSU I was a musician and studying music at my community college. After being a music major for two years and learning from friends about their experiences as music majors in 4 year colleges I knew in my heart it wasn’t for me. When I read the description for the enst program something happened.
“Do you love the natural world but also love thinking about culture, people, politics, media, economics, history, literature, art, and identity? Do you want to save the planet and also make the world a more equitable place for all its inhabitants? Do you want to develop a wide range of skills to address the world’s most pressing environmental and social dilemmas?” Yes, Yes and Yes. “Consider an interdisciplinary Environmental Studies degree at HSU…Environmental studies provides students with tools for understanding the complex relationships between human communities and both “natural” and built environments. (2018-2019 HSU catalog). At the time I didn’t fully understand why this description was so appealing to me and how strongly the goals of this major align with who I am.
I've spent the last three semesters at HSU reimagining my understanding of the world, embracing how I truly feel and learning how to create possibilities to empower change and connections in the communities I’m part of, in the world and within myself. Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Marie Brown (AMB) helped me understand concepts I was studying and connect them to feelings I was having about the world. Here are some of the ways these principles apply to my life.
Knowing that Change is Constant. Nothing is permanent. That you are changed by and change everything you interact with. You have the power to shape the world however small you are in it. Change holds an element of hope for me because oppressive systems colonialism and capitalism are also susceptible to change.
Fractals teach us that even small change has large impacts, that patterns repeat themselves and permeate throughout scales, that making a positive impact on a local scale can make waves globally. Recognizing patterns in our everyday life and connecting them to global patterns can help us understand why certain patterns exist and permeate. Fractals hold the ability to manifest patterns of empowerment on a local scale and design patterns to bring about global change.
I’ve come to understand the importance of Interdependence and Decentralization from theory based discussion and real life experiences. The concept of mutual aid embodies the power of community interdependence and decentralization. Like finding strength in actions of solidarity, reciprocity and love for each other. Making efforts to decentralize from a state that uses violence and oppression to maintain power and societal structures. Collective power and power within instead of power over others. I joined the recently sprouted Humboldt Mutual Aid group and I jumped at the chance to attend meetings and help coordinate our first skill share In community. I’ve remained involved with weekly meetings and an accountability process group that sprouted from a skill share event.
I won’t go into all the lessons that Emergent Strategy has taught me but after reading the book I do consider myself an agent of change. I seek creative ways to support the people around me. I study to understand the way social, political, economic and cultural energies shape the world we know. I want to foster interdependence in my communities and foster a collective strength that will allow us to replace systems of oppression with systems of healing, solidarity and respecting earth.
As important as understanding the world is understanding your place in the world. Understand and admit your differences, privileges, biases, fears, and shortcomings. So that you can be truthful to yourself and others. So that you can respect others and hope they respect you. Understand yourself and the realities of inequality and injustice in this world so that we can rid ourselves and our societies of racism, colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, all the other isms that seek to divide and exploit us and this Earth. So that we can replace them with systems of solidarity, reciprocity, healing, justice and dare I say, pleasure.
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