City vs. Nature Motif: A Firsthand Experience

In our recent readings of modernist works in class, we've discussed the idea of the city versus nature a lot. My experience last weekend revealed to me the composition of my inner self: whether I prefer the city or nature more.


Last weekend I visited two cities--two cities which perhaps could not be more polar opposites. The first city was Austin, Texas. We (my father, my mother, and I) left from New Orleans for Austin late Thursday night. We were visiting Austin to check out UT Austin--a college which I was considering at the time. Austin is currently one of America's most economically-booming cities. Much of the hype centering around the city is in large part due to UT Austin; huge companies are recognizing the talent coming out of this predominately STEM school and are flocking to build their headquarters near the University. Friday morning, we officially toured the campus. Since UT Austin is the ideal school for what I want to study (math and computers), it was difficult for me to be honest to myself and my family about my opinion of the school: I didn't like it. I think much of my dislike stems from the fact that the campus is centered right in the middle of the city. To a lost pedestrian aimlessly walking the streets of Austin, the campus would seamlessly blend in with the city itself. I could foresee myself easily getting lost in the city without knowing anybody there, so I crossed UT Austin off my list.

Our next stop was Eunice, Louisiana for a cousin's wedding. I'm sure you haven't heard of Eunice; the only reason I know anything about it is because much of my mom's side of the family is from there. We left Austin Saturday morning and arrived at our "hotel" in Eunice mid afternoon. This "hotel" was a plantation of three lodges. On the grounds, animals roam freely and visitors (including myself) are able to pet, feed, and interact with them. To say the least, it was a nice decompression from the hustle and bustle of Austin. That night, we went to the wedding. The wedding itself was painfully boring, so I was looking forward to the after party. Hyping myself up for the after party proved an awful idea because it only made the ennui ;) of the event all the more upsetting. The only thing that powered me through the two hours of sitting on my phone at a table while watching drunk old people dance was the hope that MAYBE the final stop of the night--a visit to some family friends at their own family restaurant by the name of DI's-- would be fun. And fun it was. In the middle of miles upon miles of dark roads and farmland in the middle of nowhere was this tiny, popping Cajun restaurant. It was around closing time, so DI's wasn't as jam packed as it had been earlier in the night, but the atmosphere was nevertheless lively. There was Cajun music, Cajun crawfish, and Cajun people. The culture and happiness within that 2,000 square foot Cajun paradise in the middle of nowhere was more genuine than anything one sees in most cities. Over the crawfish and the music, I talked with the family we were visiting, taught the young ones how to hang spoons on their nose, and discovered family ties I didn't know about (my grandma was childhood best friends with the owner of the restaurant! I guessed I shouldn't be too shocked, as such a "coincidence" in Eunice is probably commonplace).

As if you can't tell by now, the answer to the original question I posed--"whether I prefer the city or nature more"-- is that I hands down prefer nature!