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June, July, August. The last of it is finally here; the last of freedom in the form of weekend everyday. A temporary way of life incorporating spontaneity and adventure has to end and adapt into a more lasting one of routine and structure.

Summer is ending and school is soon to begin. With the seven hours that will be committed each day to order within walls, is it ever wondered what we missed outside of it all and did we fail to learn something in that time?

In three months of heat and freedom, the world can offer more than sights from an air-conditioned oasis where boxes talk and blink and everything one superficially needs is present.

Only recently have I realized the reality of this ecosystem beyond roads and cars and buildings, and that life in the city and in school is not permanent and everything beyond it may offer so much more.

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” I found this quote by John Muir to be very applicable to this column and his character very significant to the focus I’m trying to achieve.

Muir’s life and its style encompassed enthusiasm for the outdoors and dedication for a space not created by machines — a second home, but the birthplace of it all: the real thing. A something so important it surrounds us everywhere and it makes everything, scattered beside the road, lining the houses, then thickening and branching bringing us deeper, teaching us more.

Muir urged the preserving of nature not only for its beauty and potential but out of necessity, believing in its power over the human spirit, with an ability to connect and make us whole.

These ideas continued through his life, and influenced many to follow in his ideology and habits. He impacted a chain of preservation starting with the establishment of Yosemite Valley as the country’s first state park.

The mutual impression between Muir and the nature he was exposed to is recognized internally, through his many writings, and also publicly with numerous historic sites, trails, and monuments, including a John Muir Memorial Park in Buffalo, Wis., created on an area that served as young Muir’s family home.

He grew and adapted into an adventurer, a teacher and a listener, learning more than those who sped about following the group and building the factories. In the midst of the Industrial Revolution, Muir avoided the scenes of smoke and metal and returned to something he believed in, the real earth.

Throughout the time I have been away from many of society’s holds and instructions, I’ve felt more power, a sense of escapism, newness that the norm doesn’t bring and can’t give. Nature is distinctively different than walls and rules, there are no boundaries, no obligations or expectations. It’s refreshingly different. It seems all slightly rebellious in the best way possible, some unknown, but all waiting to be explored.

Gina Wheeler is a senior at Onalaska High School.