Seeing the Unseen

Episode Transcript

Jessica: "Hello and welcome to the next episode of Generation Nature. I have Xander joining me today. Hi Xander, how are you?"

Xander: "Hello, thank you very much for inviting me here. Well, I think my story is a little bit different to the typical story. I think a lot of the stories that I hear about nature are nature connectedness from a very young age..."

Jessica: "Interesting perspective. I imagine it's something a lot of young people relate to, seeing outdoor activities as being there's an end goal rather than being outside being the purpose in itself..."

Xander: "I'm not saying I didn't go outside at a young age. I did. I played outside. I was taking walks and things, but I never really saw that as going outside for the nature..."

Jessica: "No, my experience was the opposite of that. I grew up very into nature, especially for my parents, my dad's side in particular..."

Xander: "Like thinking back on it, I went to like the Lizard Point and did a massive walk as a young person. But in my head, it wasn't about look at all the different flower species here and everything..."

Jessica: "Yeah, that's a wonderful change. Long-tailed tits are notoriously difficult to spot as well, so that's a lovely thing to..."

Xander: "I often saw that as the sport of walking. Like thinking back on it, I went to like the Lizard Point and did a massive walk as a young person..."

Jessica: "What do you think the turning point was for you? Because that's quite a dramatic 360 degree change your attitude when you're outside..."

Xander: "I think really the way I would describe the way I see the natural world and the way I have traditionally seen it over the past 20 something years of my life is through like blinders that I walk with like a very, very limited perspective..."

Jessica: "Yeah, that makes complete sense as a turning point. I guess it's not an entirely unique experience either..."

Xander: "And so what it means is I've just not, I've never really seen the world. I've always gone outside only for the idea of a sport rather than for the idea of nature and wellbeing and nature connection..."

Jessica: "No, definitely not. Absolutely, it only takes a morning walk with your eyes a bit more open, your mind a bit more open, just to notice things that you didn't necessarily notice before..."

Xander: "I guess it was quite a turning point. I think for a lot of it came from the break of the pandemic..."

Jessica: "Yeah, absolutely. I think even the people who are the most interested in nature still struggle with the bird calls..."

Xander: "And I do want to say just before I preface this, there is no one turning point. And that will be the same for everyone..."

Jessica: "Yeah, absolutely. You don't need to be a nature expert. It's just appreciating what's around you is more than enough..."

Xander: "Part of it was my partner, Alana. She's really into nature. So I would naturally go on walks with her..."

Jessica: "So you talked about changing your attitude and now having an interest in volunteering in the nature sector and things like that. How did you go about getting your entry into the nature sector?"

Xander: "The main real reset for me was the used to make myself really really busy. I did all sorts of volunteering outside of the nature..."

Jessica: "No, absolutely. I think that's a really great message as well, just to begin with, that people often fall into the trap of believing if they're not an expert in bird calls and naming all the different trees..."

Xander: "When it came to just before the pandemic, I was really, really busy. I didn't have time to observe nature and such or volunteer..."

Jessica: "Yeah, absolutely. I had exactly the same experience. I think especially as a young person, so many organisations are looking for youth voice within their organisation..."

Xander: "The pandemic came, like all of my volunteering stopped because it wasn't sensible, it wasn't run any of it..."

Jessica: "Did you find you faced any other barriers getting into the nature sector?"

Xander: "So I just stopped the volunteering I was doing, focused on completing my masters, but also the only way I could see my partner was to go outside on a walk..."

Jessica: "Yeah, I can understand that. I didn't drive at the time that I started my volunteering, so all of my volunteer experience is remote, essentially..."

Xander: "And so it became legal we'd often go on the same walk over and over again and that's when I kind of started noticing small things..."

Jessica: "Know you said you were very lucky in your experience and that you applied for so many different things and you got essentially everything that you applied for but how did you..."

Xander: "Which is the fact that even when you do the same walk throughout the year stuff changes and I never really noticed that fact..."

Jessica: "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure that's the experience of a lot of people, but I'm sure your experience is very valuable for a lot of organisations..."

Xander: "And it sounds really weird to say I've just a book about different plants throughout the year and how it's constantly changing but I didn't see any of that..."

Jessica: "Absolutely, I think that's the best advice you can give, especially to those people who feel like they don't have the prior environmental knowledge..."

Xander: "I just saw the path and the concrete path kind of stays the same which even now saying that it kind of doesn't because stuff changes in it..."

Jessica: "Exactly, there's so many opportunities. I guess I just wanted to ask you now, talking about all of your different experiences and the way your attitude has changed so dramatically around the nature sector..."

Xander: "But if you're not looking at it it feels like you're in the same place every time but yeah I started to notice come up and bloom in the trees or owls at night and so on..."

Jessica: "Think that is a key message and you brought up a great point there about perfect activism and that there's everyone feels this need to be the perfect environmentalist..."

Xander: "And over the course of the year I started noticing these differences and at the same time I was watching documentaries..."

Jessica: "Well, I think we've covered a lot about your story. It's been really interesting hearing about your personal experiences, both in just your attitude and how you brought up in nature and also your getting into the nature sector yourself. So thank you for sharing your story. It's lovely to have you."