The Place Beyond the Pines

However, my chair is not the only one experiencing these kinds of effects. There are many kinds of chairs scattered across the Pines for their residents to enjoy. Most are plastic but there are also some metal and even wooden ones as well. As I walked around one day, I noticed that the metal chairs were experiencing the greatest amount of weathering. I could see their frames increasingly becoming covered in rust each and every time I happened to look. Once pristine and comfortable chairs, they are now rusted and potentially dangerous traps waiting for their victim to sit. According to AZ Rust, “The formation of rust can be either slow and gradual or occur within minutes… Factors like heat, water, and oxygen play a large role in how fast rust can form” (Rust, 2020). These chairs have been outside for months so it is no surprise that I am witnessing this kind of transformation. All in all, watching these chairs slowly become covered in rust has been an interesting series of events to encounter in real time.

Another event I have watched transpire is the change in animal patterns around the community. When first arriving I was commonly visited by a herd of deer. I would watch them bed down in the open area to the left of my deck and feed in the same area during the day. Nonetheless, as more people began to move in and traffic increased I began to have fewer visitors each day. I began to wonder about what was causing them to stop coming to the place they once appeared to call home. As I began to research this dilemma, it became increasingly clear that it was the influx of human activity causing this event. I began to research specifically what about humans forces this to happen, and it turns out we have a much larger impact than I would have guessed. According to Lynne Foster, a writer for Elko Daily, deer naturally migrate between “summer and winter homes” (Foster, 2005). As a whole, deer have a hard time adapting their routes around man made areas, so as a result many die. However, “urban” deer are more aware of their surroundings than deer who live deep in the woods (Foster, 2005). Upon further investigation I found that my friends had begun bedding down in a field just outside of the housing community. This field provides them easy access to their “winter home” in the woods and is also filled with an abundance of natural foliage to feed on. It comforts me knowing that these deer have adapted to the new environment around them, but I feel a sense of remorse. It is almost as if I took their home from them, but every once in a while one of them stops by to let me know they are doing just fine.

In the end I could not be happier with the situation I find myself in. Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that a global pandemic would bring me the best year of college I have had so far. This site has given me the opportunity to dive deeper into the world around me as well as connect with the one I was already so familiar with. I now find comfort in asking questions I never would have thought of before. This semester has shown me that everything around us has a story to tell, whether it be an inanimate object or a friend that does not speak our language. I wish that anyone who reads this is able to find a place like this for themselves; a space that provides a home and is not bothered by the amount of questions asked.