"We are never apart"- Nick Mulvey

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I view collective memory as this fluctuating, nonlinear "function" or "expression" of societies, in which the tangible visualizations from it exist in tradition, art, culture, literature, landscape, architecture, livelihoods, religion, identity etc. It is a two-sided coin of the collective unconscious and the collective experience– preserved through archetypes like the Hero, the Shadow, and the Trickster. A Hero’s challenges are overcome and transformation is brought about. A Shadow’s darker or hidden aspects of the self– national, communal or individual– are suppressed, contradicted, or dismissed. A Trickster’s disruptions to the norm, creates chaos and catalyzes metamorphoses (my personal favorite). Collective memory is a living act which continually integrates new experiences into the collective narrative– good or bad, for better or worse– imbuing the past with this relevance and innate connection spanning intergenerational remembrance. So which is it?

I hope to study collective memory, but I don’t expect to understand it through grand cultural narratives like the kinds curated through study abroad’s; instead I plan to broach it through the quiet, personal moments found in broken conversations in the familial yurts of Mongolia, along the perennial wildflowers and lakes shouldering Kyrgyz National identity, in the workshops of the traditional “va’a” alongside composite constructions of today in French Polynesia, in the complex shadow of engineered enormities like the Three Gorges Dam or the “forgotten” sections of the Great Wall, through river cleaning initiatives of Indonesia’s Grassroots organizations bearing the consequences of the Global North, or a simple exchange of collaboration– a shared memory.

I think of environmental engineering as also a form of storytelling– an interdisciplinary meeting point of contribution and community with a passion for innovation and environmentalism. I think I’ve fallen in love with one of these sides of collective memory, a balance between humans and nature, cultural loss and natural heritage, a dual-memory. In these places, I aim to investigate collective memory of niche island systems through storytelling found in craft, artistry, navigation, and landscapes. 

My mind was honed by the love, kinship, landscapes, and community that championed me. Not having the opportunity to finish college, my mom was afforded an education through hard work and travel. She and my mentors, professors, and peers instilled my drive for higher education. It is partially through them that I have received this opportunity. The mutual respect for myself and those from whom I have learned seeded me to explore and provide the same compassion and spirit of volunteerism they instilled in me. I aim to be the first in my family to pursue graduate school and to use the challenges and skill sets invoked by Bonderman to do so. Learning the art of confronting self-doubt, homesickness, or vulnerability constructively, weighing my privileges and contributions, the essence of confidently being without a need to always be doing, and the growth that comes from simplifying moments – these are the notions I will confront with honesty and optimism. My own Hero, Shadow, and Trickster.

These places, peoples, and landscapes are not the result of one framework, experience, or singular heart but the infinite layers, perspectives, and evolutions that have contributed to how fluid their memories remain. In learning myself, framing my life, experiencing much this world has to offer, and broadening my heart to encompass the spirit of those individuals, communities, and stories who have filled it, I have also committed myself to layers, perspectives, and evolutions while investigating the change-making and empathetic values my Puget Sound community inspired.