This I Believe
Max Loebig
I believe in spending time in nature. I live on 127 acres near Ignacio in Southwest Colorado. It’s close to the Ute Reservation and the nearest town is about 15 miles away, and our closest neighbor is probably a quarter mile away. There are 2 other families that live on the same road as me. The bus picks me up at 7 in the morning, it’s an hour-long bus ride in the morning, and then it’s another hour and a half getting home after school. I don’t get home until about 5 o’clock if I ride the bus. When I get home after being stuck inside all day, I want to be outside.
Our property is 3 40-acre squares, and they follow along the canyon in an L shape. All the rock around there is crumbly sandstone, there’s a lot of pinon pine and juniper trees. In my experience, living on 100 acres, I spend a lot of time outside. My Dad and I have built a couple of trails for hiking and mountain biking.
If I’m frustrated with something, usually I’ll just go outside and ride my bike. Yesterday I had to go to my sister’s school exhibition. We got home and I’d been in school all day and I always want as much time outside as possible. So most of the time when I get home I like to go on a bike ride. It’s kind of my routine.
I built a pretty big jump that I hadn’t got a chance to ride yet, so I went and rode that a couple of times yesterday. The jump is basically a rock with dirt packed on top of it for a ramp. It’s probably a 10 to 12-foot gap between the jump and the landing. When I’m in the air, not much is going through my mind--a lot of people call it the Flow Zone, a lot of times when you’re riding, you’re concentrating on riding and not really thinking about anything. A lot of times if I’m stressed about school or something, I’ll go and ride, when you get in that zone and it takes your mind off of whatever you were worried about. It takes care of the stress, like if I have a project that’s due that I’m not done with.
Spending time in nature is most important to me because so much of my day has to be inside. A lot of people have to spend their days inside or in front of a computer. I believe people would be happier if they got to spend more time in nature.
Max Loebig
I believe in spending time in nature. I live on 127 acres near Ignacio in Southwest Colorado. It’s close to the Ute Reservation and the nearest town is about 15 miles away, and our closest neighbor is probably a quarter mile away. There are 2 other families that live on the same road as me. The bus picks me up at 7 in the morning, it’s an hour-long bus ride in the morning, and then it’s another hour and a half getting home after school. I don’t get home until about 5 o’clock if I ride the bus. When I get home after being stuck inside all day, I want to be outside.
Our property is 3 40-acre squares, and they follow along the canyon in an L shape. All the rock around there is crumbly sandstone, there’s a lot of pinon pine and juniper trees. In my experience, living on 100 acres, I spend a lot of time outside. My Dad and I have built a couple of trails for hiking and mountain biking.
If I’m frustrated with something, usually I’ll just go outside and ride my bike. Yesterday I had to go to my sister’s school exhibition. We got home and I’d been in school all day and I always want as much time outside as possible. So most of the time when I get home I like to go on a bike ride. It’s kind of my routine.
I built a pretty big jump that I hadn’t got a chance to ride yet, so I went and rode that a couple of times yesterday. The jump is basically a rock with dirt packed on top of it for a ramp. It’s probably a 10 to 12-foot gap between the jump and the landing. When I’m in the air, not much is going through my mind--a lot of people call it the Flow Zone, a lot of times when you’re riding, you’re concentrating on riding and not really thinking about anything. A lot of times if I’m stressed about school or something, I’ll go and ride, when you get in that zone and it takes your mind off of whatever you were worried about. It takes care of the stress, like if I have a project that’s due that I’m not done with.
Spending time in nature is most important to me because so much of my day has to be inside. A lot of people have to spend their days inside or in front of a computer. I believe people would be happier if they got to spend more time in nature.
Reflection