What Scares Me About the Outdoors
By Jayla Meaux Diana Simumpande Many Black and brown folks don’t feel safe in the outdoors, and I can personally relate to this. I’m a young Black woman and I consider myself to be pretty curious about nature, but fears and inexperience stop me from exploring. Growing up, I would spend time outside with my dad and siblings. We would take trips to the beach to watch my dad fish and we would go to playgrounds and waterfronts. I always enjoyed the beach the most. I love the view and the feeling of walking on the sand. As I got older, I started going outdoors less. I realized that I wasn’t feeling confident in nature, and that I was developing anxieties that were making it harder and harder for me to feel at ease. I’d love to get to a place where I can enjoy the outdoors again, so I’m going to talk about some of my personal fears that have made the outdoors feel less accessible to me, and ways in which I’ve been working to overcome those fears. Hopefully this will help other people who a