Preserve Our Parks

View of Corrigan Drive in South Park

In 2008, a landmark was reached in terms of the distribution of the population. For the first time, the population of the world was split evenly between urban and rural regions. By 2050, it is estimated that 70 percent of the world population will be residing in urban areas. (Human Population 1) In a world that is growing increasingly more urbanized and industrialized, it is important to keep environmental concerns in mind. As the cities continue to grow, rural areas are beginning to disappear, along with many of the parks located within them. I grew up in a town named after a park and enjoyed all of the benefits of having a large park in my hometown. My experiences in the various parts of the park of South Park have helped me to realize the importance of preserving parks, including national parks. We must maintain these parks in order to save animals, plants, and the human experience.

An important reason that national parks need to be preserved is to maintain the habitats of various species of animals. Throughout my many voyages through my own park, I have noticed various animals. I can remember sunny days where I would walk through the park on the wooded path and suddenly hear the sound of a family of deer scampering off to my left, or a groundhog borrowing into the leaves on my right, or just the birds chirping overhead. Although these are relatively commonly seen animals, it is still evident that the park is their central living location. If the park were to be taken over by housing developments, where would these animals go? The main problem would certainly be the deer. There is already an over abundance of deer in Allegheny County, and if the parks, in which the deer currently reside, were to be turned into something else, the deer would become much more of a hazard, especially to drivers. Many of the species of animals that reside in the park would either migrate away, decrease in population, or both. This scenario can be thought of on a larger scale in terms of a national park. National parks can house incredible numbers of animals. In fact, “Yellowstone National Park has the largest concentration of wildlife in the lower 48 states” (Nature and Wildlife 1). As urban lands continue to increase, it is imperative to keep at least these habitats as places for the animals to remain in. If people do not preserve the national parks, there will surely be a decrease in the population and variety of species of animals in the United States and around the world, leading to the unfortunate extinction of some animals. In order to save these animals, the national parks and parks around the world must be preserved.

The other component of parks, the plants, is also very important and provides a vital reason for preserving parks. As I stroll through the parks of my hometown, I am shaded by giant trees and surrounded by bushes, ferns, and flowers of all types. It is truly a beautiful sight to see, and it is so nice to be able to breathe in the fresh air provided by the plants. I once took a beach towel and laid it on a grassy hill in the sun and was able to sleep for hours because of the fresh air and the peacefulness of the atmosphere around me. The field and woods around me seemed huge that day. But while the parks of South Park encompass a large amount of land in my mind, they are nowhere near the size of the national parks. The amount of plant life they contain is also much greater. From national parks such as Crater Lake to even Death Valley, plant species and populations are abundant. In order to maintain this abundance, we must also maintain our national parks. The plants and landscape in general serve as food and shelter for the animals that live in the national parks. If the plants were to die out because of the destroying of a park, the animals would die out too. Plants are also used as food and for medicinal reasons by humans. While the plants located in the actual national parks may not directly be used for these purposes by humans, other plants of those species from other locations are indeed used, so it is imperative that humans assure that these plants do not become extinct. Plants also help to keep our air clean. If parks were transformed into something else, not only would it be likely that the new development would be polluting the air, but there would also be a lack of plants to clean it back up. I would be devastated if one day I came home and saw all the trees and plants in my park destroyed. Because plant life is so important, people must focus on preserving national parks in order to save the plants within them.

Not only are parks a habitat for plants and animals, they are also an environment for humans. I use my park for many purposes, including running, walking, and just going on adventures with friends. Hanging out in the park with friends or family is always a fun and relaxing activity, with the added benefit of being outside and getting to do something for free. I have spent countless summer days just wandering the park. I cannot imagine not having the park available to me. This realization has further taught me how important it is to preserve the parks. In my community, the park inspires a healthy lifestyle and social interaction. Parks also give people a further appreciation for nature. Without parks, all of these elements would be taken away. People gain much from the national parks as well. They provide a source of entertainment and a travel destination for many. The national parks also give people who live in urbanized areas the chance to fully experience nature. They also serve as educational tools, for one of the best ways to learn about nature and the landscape of the country is to see it for oneself. All of these experiences would be hard to replace if the national parks were not preserved. Therefore, it is essential to preserve parks so that people are able to experience them.

When I am at home, I see parks all around me every day. No matter where I am going, I must always pass through one. I have spent a lot of time in these parks, and my time spent there has helped me to realize how important they are. Not only is it important to save parks like the ones in my hometown, but it is essential to save national parks around the world. Parks are the home of countless animals and plants, and also provide experiences for people that cannot be found anywhere else. From my experiences in my hometown, I now am a strong supporter of preserving parks.

Works Cited:

"Human Population: Urbanization - Population Reference Bureau." Home - Population Reference Bureau. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .

“Yellowstone National Park Wildlife / Animals - ALLYellowstonePark.com." ALL Yellowstone National Park Lodging, Vacations, Old Faithful - ALLYellowstonePark.com. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .

Picture found at: www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc42046.php

The Trials of the Course

The force of nature is something that cannot be compared to any other force on this earth. Nature is not simply a collection of things such as trees and grass, it is an entity with characteristics all of its own. In fact, nature is sometimes referred to by humans as “Mother Nature,” thereby suggesting the humanistic qualities that nature tends to have. Personifying nature becomes simple because, like people, it teaches us lessons. In my experiences of nature, I have learned many lessons. I have also experienced some of natures other humanistic qualities; I have found, for example, that nature can be unforgiving, generous, surprising, and a whole other range of things. A large portion of my hometown, South Park, as perhaps can be presumed from the name, is a park. Therefore, I have been able to experience nature quite often within my small town. As a runner, I often explore many of these places. Some of my most unique experiences in nature have been on the cross country course used by South Park High School. Running on this cross country course, I learned many lessons about both nature and myself, and I experienced the various characteristics of Mother Nature, such as its toughness and its independence.

My experiences on the cross country course showed me how small I was compared to nature, and how nature acted independently of anything I wished for. Unlike many other high schools’ cross country courses, South Park’s course is actually a part of nature. Located deep within the woods behind the South Park Fairgrounds and “The Oval,” the course might be hard to find if one was not made aware of it. At the commencement of each cross country season, the cross country team held the responsibility of cleaning up the course. Since it was located in the woods, the running path was often overgrown with weeds and blocked by recently fallen trees. The team marched into the woods, armored with weed-whackers, hedge clippers, and other such tools, and cleared the course so that it was capable to race on. This task was always sort of a pain. Why couldn’t the course just stay clear? Why, year after year, did all of our hard work just disappear, only to have to be repeated again the next year? The answers to these questions that I asked myself became more and more clear the more time I spent on the course. The answer was, simply, that nature didn’t really care. Nature also didn’t care if it decided to pour down rain on the day of a race. Nature just wanted to take care of itself and grow and prosper; it did not care about humans and where or when they wanted to run. Through experiences at the cross country course, I found that nature will act according to its own wants and needs; not according to those of anyone or anything else.

Through my experiences, I also found that nature was tough and unforgiving. In a way, this was a further extension of my discovery of the enormity of nature and its will. In regards to the course itself, it was mutually agreed upon by runners in our section that our course was one of the more difficult ones to race on. The fact that it was our home course could be looked at as advantageous to my team, since even though it was a difficult course, at least we got to practice on it. All the runners, from both my team and the teams we were running against, feared “The Hill.” Located about one mile into the course in the middle of the woods, this dirt hill seemingly rose out of nowhere. It was incredibly steep; runners often used not just their feet but their hands in order to climb up it, grabbing the roots of trees to pull them along. Almost no one actually wanted to run up it; in fact, it often was believed to be a smart strategy to walk up it instead of wasting all of your energy trying to run up it. However, the South Park coaches did not believe that walking won races. Every meet, one of our coaches would stand at the top of the hill with a video camera and film everybody running up the hill, making walking not an option. Of course, at the end of the year the team would get a good laugh when we watched these videos and saw all of our opponents walking while we were running. Running up that hill was one of the hardest things I had to do during my career as a runner, but it made me stronger. Nature was sending a clear message that it did not want to be easily conquered. Nature is tough, and so it treats those involved with it as so. No matter what kinds of aches and pains a runner had the day of the race, he or she still had to run up that hill. Nature is unforgiving. My experiences in nature at the cross country course helped make me become more aware of the tough and unforgiving temperament of nature.

While running at our cross country course, nature taught me many life lessons. Aforementioned, interacting with the forces of nature made me stronger. Whether I was up against horrible weather or just the difficulty of the course itself, I always had to battle to make it through the race. I knew that I could never give up; it was as if during a race nature and I were at war. At the same time, running on the course made me want to make peace with nature because it made me more appreciative of it. I experienced the beauty of nature and came to respect it for its historical ties and unending survival. Admittedly, I was never really a huge fan of cross country, but the many lessons I learned from my experiences in nature were incredibly valuable. I gained a lot of physical strength from cross country, but I gained even more mental strength. Nature showed me how to be tough and how to beat the odds.

During my time on the South Park cross country team, I was surrounded by nature quite often. The course, located in the middle of the woods, was indeed a force of nature of its own. From my experiences there, I learned many things. I was able to truly realize that nature was so much bigger than I was, and that nature was tough and unforgiving. But more important than what I learned about nature was what I learned about myself. I learned that I could be tough, just like nature, and that I could endure much harsher conditions than I could have ever imagined. My experiences in nature while running on the cross country course have certainly advanced my way of thinking.

House of Huf

In a typical lifetime, a person discovers various places that are important to him or her. So far in my short lifetime, I have already found a number that have great significance. Almost no other place holds as much significance to me as does my high school track. Throughout my high school career, I spent countless hours and countless amounts of energy there. The track witnessed the evolution of my character, along with many of the best and worst moments of my life. I became very acquainted with it over the years; I can easily remember the various characteristics of it, down to even the smell of the rubber track on a hot, sunny day. Other tracks hold great value to me as well, such as the Baldwin High School track, the Southside Beaver track, and the Shippensburg University track. I have incredibly fond memories of all of these places. These places, however, and indeed any track anywhere, are inseparable from a person, my high school head track coach, Coach Hufnagel. His knowledge of the track, his passion for it, and the numerous similarities between the track and himself all contribute to the fusion of Coach Hufnagel and the track in my mind.

One reason that Coach Hufnagel has become forever intertwined in my mind with the track is because he is the man who taught me everything I know about track. When I first met him, Coach Hufnagel, known oftentimes as “Coach Huf” or, as I became even more familiar with him, just “Huf,” was a very intimidating character. He seemed like a pretty big guy to the skinny little freshman girl that I was. However, perhaps the most intimidating thing about him was the loudness of his voice. Coach Huf knew he could scream, and he wasn’t afraid to use this talent. I can still hear echoes of “Pump your arms!” whenever I’m running down a track. But while he was intimidating, he was also incredibly welcoming to all new members of the team and was always ready to help and teach. Before Coach Huf, I hadn’t the slightest clue how many laps around the track comprised an 800, let alone where the finish line was located. In fact, before I joined the team, I don’t think I had actually ever been on a track in my life. Without his help and guidance, I wouldn’t have been nearly as successful in my high school track career as I was. Not only did he teach me the facts of the sport, he taught me how to properly run! When I travel back to my old track, or even when I’m running on the track at W&J, I think of Coach Huf and all of the things he taught me.

Another reason why Coach Huf and the track seem intertwined is because of Huf’s passion for the track. I sometimes call myself a “track nerd,” and I certainly inherited that from him. Huf had run track in high school and was indeed a very talented sprinter, although one may find that hard to believe now judging by his bulky frame. He could run the 400 meter dash in under 50 seconds, which is very impressive for a high school athlete. Coach Huf carried his love for track into his career as a teacher and quickly became an assistant track coach, later ascending to the position of head coach. His passion for the sport was transmitted to the athletes he coached. No opposing team ever seemed to share the same passion for track as our team did. I finally had Huf as a teacher during my senior year for both sociology and psychology. However, I can’t recall ever calling him “Mr. Hufnagel.” It was always still Coach Huf or Huf. Class was often interrupted by track talk, and he used the subject of track for many of his examples in class. These instances were especially prominent during the spring semester, which was when track season began. Oftentimes, class time was used for strategizing for the upcoming meet. I’d even ice my legs during class in preparation for running later that day. While I, of course, had respect for him as a teacher, when I think back to high school now I never really think of him as my teacher; I think of him as my track coach. Because of his never-ending enthusiasm exhibited at the track, whenever I return there Coach Huf always comes to mind.

I associate both the track and Coach Hufnagel with many thoughts and emotions. One of these is intensity. For as long as I have known him, Coach Huf has been intense about everything he has done. From watching the 4x1 relay practice handoffs during a pre-meet practice to watching the 4x8 relay compete in the finals of the state championship meet, Coach Huf’s intensity never failed. Screaming at the top of his lungs as his face turned a bright shade of red, Huf made sure his athletes knew exactly what was on his mind and what he wanted out of them. The track itself is something that I associate with intensity. The workouts I experienced at my track are incomparable in intensity to any others I’ve ever partaken in. The races I participated in, not only at my home track, but at others, were some of the most intense moments of my life. Other emotions associated with both Huf and the track are nervousness and excitement. At important meets, Huf would get extremely nervous; we (the team) would know if it was a close meet if we saw him, as he put it, “running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” Additionally, no matter what meet it was, Huf was always exited and pumped up, and he did an excellent job of getting his athletes pumped up as well. I now associate these feelings with the track. Any time I enter a track, even for just a simple practice, these same feelings come back. I automatically get nervous yet excited for what’s to come because of my association of the track with Coach Huf and how he made myself and the team feel. Finally, both the track and Coach Huf taught me life lessons via tough love. Coach Hufnagel was always very tough on the team, but he cared about us like we were his own family. Every year he managed to make me cry, no matter how hard I tried not to, but he was trying to do what was best for me, and we always worked things out in the end. As for the track, it could be a pretty unforgiving place. It was a place of immeasurable amounts of blood, sweat, and tears. But at the same time, I learned so many lessons about myself while I was at the track. The track, like Coach Huf, helped me learn to be tough, to never give up, and that you have to love what you do. These characteristics and endless others can be attributed to both Coach Hufnagel and the track.

When I am at a track, Coach Hufnagel always comes to mind. I can picture his stocky body clothed in track gear, his bald head covered in sweat, and his black sunglasses shielding his eyes. I can hear his numerous sayings echoing down the track, such as, “Keep your head still,” “Get out,” “I’m gonna punch you in the face,” “Cheat now, cheat when you’re married” and “Winners have a purpose, losers only have an excuse!” just to name a few. Perhaps easiest of all, when I am running down a track or even just standing around stretching, I can hear him screaming my name, “Mosi!” to get my attention for some reason. I automatically think about Coach Hufnagel when I am at a track, especially the South Park High School track, because of the intertwinement of the two in my mind. My coach taught me everything I know about track, had an extreme passion for it, and is comparable to the track itself in so many ways. The track is his home. I am sure that for as long as live, when I think about a track, I will think about Coach Huf.

Photo taken by Brittany Mosi

The Real South Park

Where a person comes from can determine a lot about that person’s life. The region a person is living in determines who many of their friends are, where they go to school, and even how they speak. A region can embody various values which can then be transferred on to the people living there. I come from a small town called South Park in southwestern Pennsylvania. This is not the South Park one might see characterized on the popular television show entitled South Park; it is indeed quite different from that. As a lifelong resident of South Park, I have noticed an assortment of values embodied by the town; values which I have noticed even more so since coming to college and being exposed to the varying different values of the regions of my colleagues.

Geographically, South Park is about 30 minutes away from the city of Pittsburgh. Oftentimes when people ask me where I am from, I don’t know whether to say South Park or to just say Pittsburgh, because I feel much attached to both. Pittsburgh has a major influence on the values of South Park. In fact, my town is part of a larger country, “Steeler Country,” that is. Many avid Pittsburgh Penguin and Pirate fans also contribute to the makeup of the city. Any given Friday during the Steeler season or any day when the “Pens” are playing a game in the Stanley Cup playoffs is sure to be a “Black and Gold” day in the schools. South Park is affected by Pittsburgh in many more ways. We speak the language of Pittsburgh (or at least a mild version of it) known as “Pittsburghese.” For example, the real name of our favorite football team is obviously the “Picksburgh Stillers.” Finally, as its suburb, South Park inherits the comradeship and friendliness exhibited by the people of Pittsburgh.

As for exactly what kind of suburb it is, South Park can be classified as middle class. In high school, we knew we weren’t the “rich kids” like Upper St. Clair, Peters Township, or Mt. Lebanon. At the same time we realized that we were still decently well off, and that a lot of the schools we competed with had a much larger lower-class population than we did. Like every town, there are different neighborhoods with different income levels. For example, the ranch house that I lived in until I was nine would be considered now to be in one of the shadier parts of South Park, even though it never seemed like it to me at the time. My new house, which happens to only be about three minutes away from my old one, is probably considered to be in the upper-middle of the spectrum. At the same time, I am still not living in one of the “fancy” new plans on the other side of South Park. Just because there are different sections of town, however, does not mean that the people don’t intermingle. It is true that people tend to form relationships with people in their immediate neighborhood because they live closer together and therefore have easy access to each other. Nevertheless, I have friends from all over town. While we all have our differences, the people of South Park are for the most part very accepting of the people around them.

By accepting one another the people of the town have grown very close, developing community spirit. One thing I always noticed about South Park is the pride we have in our town, sometimes known as “Eagle Pride.” The most obvious example of this is in the schools. South Park High School is the base of most of the sports teams in the district. The fact that it is a AA school never stopped the students from being passionate about their sports. We were always very competitive; within my time at South Park High School, the football and girls soccer teams won a state championship each, the boys soccer team had won two, and there were multiple district and section championships, including the track team who were three time undefeated section champions. The students were always very supportive of each other in their athletic ventures. Besides having Black and Gold Fridays, we often had Blue and White Fridays in support of our sports teams. Even in the elementary school, the kids were always excited for the coming week’s football game. It wasn’t only the students, however, that had Eagle Pride. Through the years, I was surprised to learn how much the community got involved in South Park athletics. Most of the people who attended the football games and other sporting events weren’t students but just our friends and neighbors in the community. People that I didn’t even know would sometimes come up to me and congratulate me on a performance at a previous track meet, because even when the people didn’t actually go to the sporting events, they still liked to read about it in the paper or hear about it somewhere else. The competitive spirit in South Park continues to bring the people together and increase community spirit.

Another example of the town coming together, which leads to another value that South Park seems to embody, is community service and the motivation to help others in general. I’m sure this is the same in a lot of towns, but I’ve always been impressed by the willingness of the people to help each other. For example, during the recent blizzard most of the power in South Park went out, including the power on the street where my house is located. My next door neighbor happened to have a generator, but instead of using it all for himself to keep his own house fully powered, he let my family and the other families around him plug into it so that we could all have enough power to plug in a few necessities. Also, despite the fact that teenagers are usually looked at as selfish, even the high school students in my town take part in helping out; the Interact club (a community service organization) at South Park High School was at one time the largest in the country, and about half of the student population of the school currently participates in it.

I have to say that I really do love my town. It’s not one of those towns where “everybody knows everybody” because it is a little too big for that, but I would say that I know a good majority of the town and I am always seeing familiar faces. I think this is a good size because it’s not so small that everyone is in everyone’s business, yet a lot of people have been there for awhile and do get to know a lot of people. I enjoy getting to know all the people because I think that most of the people are genuinely nice and almost everyone gets along. South Park obviously has its imperfections, but I suppose that every town does. As an aspiring history teacher, my dream situation would be to get to go back to South Park High School and teach. That school really helped shape the person I am today, and I would love to do that for future students. The reason it was really able to shape me as a person was because it embodied so many characteristics of South Park as a whole: characteristics, I believe, which are very important ones to have. Being a Pittsburgher, living the middle-class lifestyle, having competitiveness and “Eagle Pride,” and having the drive to help others while having an overall great sense of community are all values of South Park and are major parts of the person I am today.