The Cody Ruffing

Past trip leader for the Outdoor Adventure Club, man of the wild.

I find it fascinating the way human emotions fluctuate at every moment. The smallest factors impact our levels of energy, creativity, patience, passion, and happiness. Over time we begin to realize patterns of correlation between particular activities and our feelings; thus creating opinions and understandings of what we want and do not want to do or feel. I think a great many of us learn at a young the age the brilliance that we experience when we are immersed in natural settings. Personally, I feel invigorated. A deep breath among the company of a forest, river, mountain, or the moon does something unexplainable to me, whatever me really implies. We’ve all experienced this magic. I think we often forget about it though. We sometimes lose the ability to enjoy it, feel it, and let go of all things outside the moment we are immediately residing in. All of us fall victim to the temptations of worry. We all experience the trouble that it brings.

“To observe with a little more awareness what it feels like to breathe the air, to walk, to experience the sensation of life. ”

Every one of us could a use a friendly reminder at moments to look at things a little deeper. To observe with a little more awareness what it feels like to breathe the air, to walk, and to experience the sensation of life. To look at the trees, the clouds, the little plants growing along the sidewalk, and to feel our natureness. To realize how little we know about all the life that pulses around us. Whether it be people or other kinds of living things, there is so little we know.

It turns out, when we get away from our digital screens, obligations, and temperature controlled buildings; something remarkable happens to our brains.

-Cody Ruffing, 2017

Cody has now graduated from the University of Dayton, resides in Pittsburgh where he is working on several projects that intersect his interests in sustainability, international business, and love of life.