Hiking and trying to be trendy

Well hello there friends! My name is Claire and I am one of the four SCA interns working on the In My Backyard project. I am going into my junior year at Santa Clara University and I am an Environmental Science major with a physics emphasis and a Theatre minor. I was born and raised in Seattle which probably contributed to my everlasting love of the outdoors. When I was a kid I would frolic through the vast yard of my childhood home. I loved to watch the wind rush through the trees and feel the rain on my skin. However, if you asked my parents if I was an “outdoorsy”kid they would laugh and say no. I really did love being outside, but whenever we went camping some disaster would strike like the time I managed to get a 102 degree fever in the middle of an 8 mile hike or the time I got hypothermia on one of the San Juan Islands when our tent was pitched over what some would call a stream.

Despite the plethora of nature disasters that happened to me as a child, my love of the Earth endured. I chose Environmental Science as a major because I knew that I had to do my part to help protect the Earth against the threats of Climate change and even sometimes humans. As for the theater minor, many would attest to my flare for the dramatic. (Fun fact: theater has been equally as disaster filled as some of my outdoor experiences! During the dress rehearsal of Alice and Wonderland on the night before we opened the show, I fell off the tea party table and fractured my tailbone. Had to sit on a weird doughnut cushion for too long after that accident.) Mark my words: whenever there is a chance to dress up in gold miner uniform at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, I will be dressed up.

My other interests include: reading (Game of Thrones, am I right?), traveling (especially South East Asia, I speak some Thai), kayaking, guitar playing, and long walks on the beach.

I hope you enjoy reading our blog and following our project!