Nature...

I love this question...at first I wanted to choose Switzerland (like Krissy and Christina!) or Alaska (because those are definitely two of the most beautiful places I've ever been fortunate enough to experience) but every time I think about this question it always comes back to the trip I took to the Grand Canyon in high school. The best part of the experience was that I didn't want to go in the first place -- it had always been my mom's dream to see it, so she and her fiancé and I went down at the beginning of summer vacation after my sophomore year. I was excited, but not overly so; since summer vacation had just begun I was all high school angst and had just wanted to stay home with my friends. However, now I know, nothing beats seeing the Grand Canyon in person and I'm so happy we went...you really never tire of looking at it and it's so amazing to think that one river crafted all of that! It was just incredible! My favorite moment though was when I had one of those really cliché (but real!) spiritual connection with nature as I watched the sun set. We were walking around the rim one evening and I walked a bit away from everyone, further down to a smaller outlook - one that was secluded from the other tourists. I sat down and  and just watched the sun slowly melt into the canyon. It was such an impressive sight that I actually teared up -  and what made it even better was that the outlook was empty - it just felt like such a personal experience. I know that I'll never forget it!

I definitely think nature should be preserved! The Grand Canyon is already a National Park, but there are plenty of other places that I haven't gotten to see and I'd like them to still be there when I go! But even more importantly, it should be saved because it's absolutely beautiful (there's really limited beauty in man made structures) and necessary to the planet. Nature is so intricate and impossible to replicate and we are still learning so much from it. Plus, this might sound juvenile, but I always think that nature was here first - its certainly not fair for us to destroy it.  When I was younger my mom and dad had a cabin up in the mountains that we went to every weekend in the summer and fall. It was such a great place to experience growing up and I can't imagine future generations not having the opportunity to have their own cabin in the woods if they wanted it. It's so sad to think our future planet as one giant metropolis like in a Star Wars movie...