{"id":662,"date":"2016-04-14T14:32:30","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T18:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/?p=662"},"modified":"2016-04-14T14:32:30","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T18:32:30","slug":"inspired-by-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/inspired-by-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired by Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last post, I listed all the cool natural areas of North Carolina that I was going to visit this semester. These trips were meant to make me spend more time in nature and give me a break from the stress that I knew would come with finishing my master\u2019s project (MP) and the last semester of my master\u2019s degree.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, aside from a few short walks in the park behind my apartment, I didn\u2019t do any of the things on that list. Just like every spring semester before this one, I was busier than I expected to be, and had less free time than I thought I would. But in the midst of job applications, conducting interviews for my MP, meeting with my classmates for group projects, and doing the occasional homework assignment, I did still find time to take breaks from school.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, I helped lead the publication of the fifth issue of eno Magazine, <\/em>a student-run, nature-inspired art and literary publication. (The latest issue is available online here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"eno<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Second, I continued playing violin with Honey Magpie<\/a>, the local band I joined last summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"by<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Even though I wasn\u2019t spending time in nature, the work I was doing for both the magazine and the band was at least inspired by nature \u2013 the entire mission of eno <\/em>is to re-connect people with nature through art and literature, and almost all of Honey Magpie\u2019s songs are either inspired by nature or reference nature in some way.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would not say that running a magazine or playing music are a substitute for spending time outdoors (although playing music comes pretty close). Spending time hiking or kayaking or just sitting on my back porch might have been more relaxing and a better mental and emotional break.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then again, designing a magazine and playing violin both required me to be fully present. When I\u2019m checking a proof for errors or learning a new part, I don\u2019t have the mental space to think about how much more of my MP report I have to write or what the deadline is for my next job application. I am forced to put all that stress on the back burner and focus on the here and now.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that the magazine and the band were never stressful. But these were stresses that didn\u2019t relate to whether or not I would graduate and get a job in the next few months. And that was pretty nice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that my MP is almost <\/em>behind me and the job search is looking a little <\/em>brighter, I can appreciate how instrumental my non-academic pursuits have been in preserving my sanity this semester. Not only were they a welcome escape from school work, but I\u2019m proud of what I\u2019ve accomplished on each project. The newest issue of eno <\/em>is beautiful (here\u2019s the link again<\/a><\/span>), and Honey Magpie is continuing to expand our reach and our repertoire (check out our Facebook page here<\/a><\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also nice to know that in both of those pursuits I\u2019ve contributed to endeavors that will continue beyond my graduation \u2013 eno <\/em>has a great leadership team for next year, and Honey Magpie has shows scheduled well into fall. It\u2019s a nice reminder that life goes on, past MPs and even past graduation. I\u2019m not sure exactly what post-grad life will look like for me, but if my past pursuits have been any indication, I\u2019ll be doing something inspired by nature.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my last post, I listed all the cool natural areas of North Carolina I was going to visit this semester. Well, I didn’t do anything on that list, but I did still find time to take breaks from school and follow some nature-inspired pursuits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":506,"featured_media":651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[33],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-esc","category-students"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5bk8W-aG","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/files\/2016\/01\/Linville-Gorge-public-domain.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/econotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}