Angela Varga: Grand Canyon and the Force of Nature

Growing up a military brat means that I have been all over the world. I’ve lived on both coasts of the United States but didn’t have a chance to truly experience the Grand Canyon. I know that my parents took my brother and I there when we were younger, but my mom never fails to tell me how all my brother and I wanted to do was stay in the motel and watch cartoons. I regret my decision as a child to ignore the Grand Canyon in favor of Ren & Stimpy. Thinking about the Grand Canyon now puts me in awe of the power of nature. The fact that water had the power to carve away at the landscape over so many years to create such a large canyon astounds me. We usually think of nature as something nice for recreation and enjoyment and tend to fail to realize how destructive nature can be. Recently there have been many terrible earthquakes and even more recently a volcanic eruption in Europe. We only appreciate nature as something good and don’t even realize that there is a harsh side to it as well.