Natures Impact on Wellness 

Myself

My name is Thomas du Four and I am a senior graduating 2022 at Saint Johns Preparatory School in Massachusetts. I wanted to give an explanation about what connected me to this topic. I have several mental disorders including two learning disabilities along with depression and anxiety. I mention this because I have tried to treat my depression through therapy and technology. What I found that worked for me is that I was happiest during the summer when I was outside with my friends. Every day I would walk everywhere and found that listening to the natural world around me and looking around really decreased my levels of brooding thoughts. I always tried to understand why I have this elevated sense of wellness when I am outside so I decided that would be what I would research. A year prior to capstone I took a course on relational dynamics with Mr. Reinbold that inspired my thinking in the topic of nature and wellness. I decided fairly early that I wanted my final product to involve some sort of writing since I enjoy writing and am in the process of writing my own story. My final product came out to be a short, digital book that incorporates viewpoints of other teens and also shares experiences. For my final presentation I hope to get across everything that I have worked on very passionately and give my final thoughts on what nature is to me.