I took the bait and walked into uncertain territory in New York, South Africa, and within myself. And then I sat with it all. I have written, talked, day-dreamed, and eaten a lot of sweet potatoes to begin 2016.

Reflection may be my most valuable currency. And it may be yours too. Getting in the trenches in order to make it to fake it to make it is vital as we experience learning and life. But so too is reflection after you walk out of the challenge and adventure and look back.

All these are key ingredients in my reflection process. Two key ideas have emerged from this reflection of my Term 1 at Experience Institute:

The Arc of my Year

My most meaningful finding is that working in biomimicry is not synonymous with spending a lot of time outside. Anecdotally, there are definitely those who have found ways to carve out meaningful outdoor work, but these people appear to be largely in the minority. Many working in biomimicry work like the rest of us—around conference room tables, research labs, and at their computers.This was surprising to me, and on the surface a little counter-intuitive. What I’ve found is that people working in biomimicry are enthused about the outdoors and all the inspiration they find there, but most economically viable business models keep biomimicry practitioners indoors and in front of their screens. That said, I’m in search of an alternative path in the coming months. I’m out to test this hypothesis: optimizing time in inspiring environments (for me, the outdoors) is an economically viable way to discover and apply connections and deep patterns found in nature. This exploration gets to the heart of why I’m studying biomimicry and natural systems thinking at Ei—to get outside and find inspiration in the eloquent solutions in nature, biology, and ecology.

Deep-rooted Storytelling

Benjamin Franklin advises that we should “either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” I’m continually asking myself about which side of the fence I want to spend my energy. My initial thought is that it will never be one or the other, rather a hybrid approach. My work has always involved writing. For now, this fact alone is pushing me toward something new, to focus more on the “doing” and maybe the writing will follow. No matter what, I’ve defined parameters around the stories I’m most inspired to be a part of. Deep-rooted Storytelling combines real art with rigorous research to make new connections in a way that’s shareable and accessible. I look to The World’s Oldest Living Things and Life In Syntropy as the most meaningful examples I’ve come across recently and look to these models as I invent my own pieces.