Tristan Silva-Montoya
There’s screaming coming out of my phone as the commentators freak out about a crazy knockout. There is nothing like the excitement of that comes from a wild knockout and though I discovered it just before the start of covid, UFC has quickly become my favorite sport. I say/think this as I simultaneously play madden on my Xbox. The sound of my lizards’ water filter is a constant white noise that is drowned out most of the time; however, I’ve noticed that occasionally (especially when zoned out) the filter noise can surprisingly drown much louder things out. I get bored of madden and switch over to playing Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Just like that I’m sailing up the Thames River getting ready to raid England. Threep! My phone’s buzzing. It’s my lovely girlfriend and I pause my raid to respond. While responding to a text a few minutes later, I missed a crazy finish from the last fight! Thankfully, there were plenty of replays! As the fights finish up so too does my hour of media.
I start walking over to the park by my house, Claude Moore Park. I’m relatively new to the area and I don’t know this park too well yet, so I decide to make today about exploration. As I get through the neighborhoods, I finally arrive at the trail entrance to the park. I notice that the trees closest to the street have a lot lichens. Crossing through the trail entrance takes me back to my childhood; I grew up right next to a park and went through a very similar trail entrance to get there almost every day to hangout/explore after school with my brother and friends. The trail is mostly quiet, but I hear the occasional bird and rustle of a squirrel. I end up near the baseball fields. After walking through all that, I find this big farmhouse looking building that turns out to be the Heritage Farm Museum. It has lots of flowers and vegetable gardens all around and with those are the insects that follow suit. To the right of the building is some pastures and then a pond. The pond has a dock on the other side of it for fishing. I notice the ripples of a fish right as I look toward the dock. I go down a trail next to the pond. This trail becomes more mud than gravel and my feet sink into the ground as I walk. To the left of the trail is an actual lake not just a pond. There’s an island with a big tree and some other vegetation. All along the islands coast are bugs. It was a little far to tell exactly what they were, but it looked like a few dragon flies. This park reminds me a lot of home because the park I grew up near also had two bodies of water and a lot of hiking/biking trails.
My two experiences were much different. My media full hour was more reactionary. I had both TV as well as a video game going on at the same time and therefore had a lot of stimulation to react to. The TV I was watching isn’t necessarily something you would just be braindead during because that sport is so unpredictable you have to be watching and analyzing everything. A video game is obviously pretty stimulating especially in terms of reactions. My nature-filled hour was much more appreciative of my surroundings. I was just taking things in during my walk and I found that the park, I suppose unsurprisingly, reminded me of home and the things I did in the park by my childhood house.