Creating this Land Appreciation piece was one of the most fun learning tasks I’ve completed. It gave me the opportunity to pause, reflect, and reconnect with a place that holds deep personal significance, Lake Minnewanka. Working on this assignment didn’t feel like a typical school task. It felt like returning home to a memory that grounds me.

When I first visited Lake Minnewanka, I didn’t realize how much it would shape my future. This learning task gave me the space to reflect on how land can carry memory, inspire life-changing decisions, and deepen our sense of belonging. Writing about my experience there made me realize how much I’ve grown, not just in where I live, but in how I relate to the land around me.

What this task taught me most is that appreciation is an act of relationship. As I wrote about the lake, I began to see more clearly how we are all part of something larger and we are connected, like the trees sharing one root system. It also reminded me of my responsibility, to walk gently, to listen, and to protect the spaces that give us so much.

This task also blended many parts of who I am: my love for nature, my appreciation for art, and even my little traditions like returning to the lake each summer with my family. It reminded me why I chose Calgary and why this course has meant so much to me. Even my cat, Cheeto, made it into the assignment and somehow, that felt just right.