What Flows Around Comes Around, by Megan Harvey

 Our day to day lives are made up of cycles, from waking up at the same time every day to sitting through the same classes. When you think about it, cycles can be found everywhere. For instance, recycling is most likely one of the most common cycles in our daily lives. The lifespan of a plastic water bottle goes far beyond just using it once, throwing it away, and never thinking about it again. The most common cycle, however, is the cycle of life. We are born, we live, we die.  It just makes me think how we want to enjoy and make meaning of our lives. This week, that is what I found myself drawn to in every class because it seems cycles keep coming up. Life truly is one big cycle and we explored this idea in each of our classes this week….

     The Huckleberry Youth Center came to speak with us in Health about our choices and actions in terms of our reproductive health (speaking of life cycles). I never though about how such small decisions could have such powerful impact; for instance, becoming pregnant or getting an STD from one unprotected encounter.  Some of the ways we can protect ourselves are being abstinent, and thinking and acting with responsibility.  Making these choices now means we protect our futures. Even though it might have been awkward learning about all the body parts, it was still a good time. The week was filled with facts, games, giggles and yawns as we learned about the cycle of reproduction and life. 

     This week in English, we did a poem mural of Ted Loder’s “Let Something Essential Happen to Me.” The poem expresses one’s desire for purpose and meaning in life: “something essential and joyful…something like the blooming of hope and faith, like a grateful heart, like a surge of awareness.”  As teens, we can all relate to this poem’s message, because we all want to find our purpose through positive action. Once we put all of our lines together, the poem flowed like a river, just like the Water Unit! Now, I find myself noticing cycles in the book we are beginning to read, Siddhartha, about a man who discovers himself through a hero’s journey—another cycle!  His metamorphosis connects to the decisions that we make in our own lives, for example, in reducing our eco-footprint and actions regarding our health. The intro lessons we prepared related to concepts from the book, like Samsara, Maya and Karma—all cycles of birth, death, and rebirth.

     Speaking of karma, we need to make fundamental changes regarding our use of water. As the population reaches seven billion, major conflicts arise over our limited water supply. The planet had the same amount of water it has always had, but the health of that water is deteriorating. The hydrologic cycle, or water cycle, is the process of water evaporating, coming back down as rain, and flowing back to the oceans. It’s constant. Mr. Madsen introduced the idea of paying for water: who has rights to water, third world countries unable to pay for water, and the overall cycle of money and business. In class we researched conflicts regarding water in Africa, and found that water issues relate to poverty, lack of education, sickness and hunger. I found myself thinking about how money, government and water all connected. If you’re poor, you don’t get water?! Water is like air; it should be free for everyone alive.  The movie Flow brings up the idea of compromise between economic growth and water rights. When we manipulate natural cycles we harm the earth and ourselves.

     Cycles exist not only in vast bodies of water, but in places as tiny as cells. In Biology, we learned that cells involve cycles too because they complete their functions over and over and are always changing.  Our projects focused on ocean acidification, which is where the pH levels, or amounts of acid in the oceans increase, killing off many species of animals. We looked at specific bodies of water that impact many peoples' business and food, and saw how acidification has affected these aspects of life. Groups researched places such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Amazon River and created a prezi to present their findings. The results were incredible. Ocean acidification affects everyone everywhere, even if it is not recognized yet. The steps leading up to acidification are also cycle: more fertilizer being used means more being swept into water bodies and pollution in air means more acid rain. These small changes create a huge affect to the water, making it unhabitable for life. No fishing means no business and no money for fisherman and other businesses relying on the fish. Everything is affected, like dominos knocking each other over. It is really just one big never ending cycle unless we take action to help stop acidification. 

        Overall, this week was filled with lessons that connected to each other. It's unique and interesting to be able to study one thing in five different ways, seeing something in a different light every time. My classmates and I never knew how water could be connected to money, literature, pollution, and health. I certainly never knew what acidification was and how it caused dead zones, and I never knew that water could be so influential to money and business. It truly is facinating to see how different elements interact to form one large cycle of never ending changes.