Becoming one with nature at FIU

Photo courtesy of Ryan Vogel.

Shehryar Effendi/Staff Writer 

My phone read “slight rainfall and 78 degrees Fahrenheit” as I made my way to the freshly built jogging track near the University nature preserve. The first view of the jogging track was as encouraging as I thought it would be. I began my jog at 4:34 p.m. and the first time my feet landed on the soft red material I knew I was in for a surprise. As I jogged around the 0.58 mile track, my experience was actually uplifting.

The track is so inviting that it almost dissolves your steps into itself as you progress with your run. It starts from the nature preserve, goes side-by-side to the baseball stadium, followed by Parkview Housing and then finally reaches the nature preserve again. As I ran, I could not help but notice all the walkways inside the nature preserve. Although I was not able to take a tour of these tracks and where they lead, I still had a lot of fun.

As it was raining while I jogged, the feeling became almost heavenly. I was around nature, breathing fresh air while listening to songs and exploring this new mystery that lay before me. After 3.2 miles I stopped and began working out at one of the stations. I saw a couple of people go into the forest while others stood on the outside picking what I took as fruits from trees.

The tall, dark forest not only has pathways that wind up somewhere but it also has planks on stands that highlight the kind of trees there are around the area and where these kinds of trees actually grow. These pathways appear to be quite inviting as they leap into the middle of the forest and hence provide an amazing opportunity for adventure.

For all those who like adventure I would definitely recommend you to explore these forests. People were going in and walking out every time I would complete a lap. On the back side facing the baseball stadium there is also a little green house from what I could tell. This was where most of the people were. For me, the new jogging track proved extremely helpful because I like to run every day and this track helps me be around nature and actually enjoy what I do.

Although I jog almost every day I still haven’t discovered where the tracks lead to and how far they go but I’ve designated next week for this with a couple of friends. I would recommend everyone to at least check out the forest because it really is inspiring and brings you close to nature after a whole week of stress, work and assignments.

shehryar.effendi@fiusm.com