Sophie Hughett

Bio: Sophie Hughett is a first-year at UNC majoring in Global Studies and Journalism. She grew up living in Kenya, Jordan, and Boone in western North Carolina. She’s been exposed to nature all her life and expresses her passion for it through nature photography and other activities.

Growing up, how much did you interact with nature, and what were your memories with it?

I interacted with a nature during my childhood, especially because my mom loves nature a lot – she’s a big climber and hiker. I also lived in Kenya, and I used to go to the desert part of Kenya for big camping trips. There’s a place called Naivasha with a big lake and stuff, and we used to go there a lot, which grew my love for camping. Later, when I lived in Jordan, there were a lot of nature conservation facilities there, and so I would interact with those places a lot. In my daily life I pretty much spent more time outside than indoors – there wasn’t much else to do. Plus I lived in the middle of an olive grove.

Did people around you have similar experiences, or was it just your family?

Culturally, there were lots of other people doing that, but also with the society that I lived in, people didn’t really go out and do stuff a lot. Especially women. My mom was a huge part of my interest though – she actively pushed me to go outside.

What was the general attitude of people in terms of appreciating and protecting the environment?

That’s a difficult question because when I lived in Kenya, there was a ton of development going on. So there was lots of nature, but people were trying to build things on it. They cared about the nature, but they also needed to move it out of the way. Then again, I lived in a big city there, so that might’ve been specific to the area. They respected nature, but they kept building.

In Jordan, there were lots of natural sites protected by the government. They cared about it primarily because of tourism, perhaps, but they did take steps to protect things like the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. There were definitely measures put in place to protect nature there.

Were there community or person-to-person initiatives to help the environment?

Definitely not. It’s more of a main government initiative. I lived in a pretty small city, far away from the main cities, much closer to Syria. It was very rural, and the amount of trash bags on fences was such that the fence was made out of trash bags because they’d just be stuck there. The amount of pollution was huge and people didn’t try to clean it up. And it was normalized, so people didn’t really notice it or think about it too much.

Do you think your unique interaction with nature, as a result of your mom’s encouragement and your experiences, made you have a different attitude towards the environment from others in your community?

Yes, I would say so. I also think that because I was around nature a lot just from a young age, it was second nature for me to care about it.

Pivoting to your time in the US, or in Boone specifically – do you think there’s a general culture in Boone centered around caring about the environment?

Yeah, I’d say so. Boone is a really interesting place because there’s a lot of conservative farmers out there, and they aren’t as politically inclined to protecting the environment. But, at the same time, the land is their whole life, so they have an even bigger incentive to protect it. Water sources, especially, get damaged badly from the industrialization and development of Boone. So you have a weird overlap between people who wouldn’t always care about the environment and hardcore environmentalists who just love the beauty of Boone’s nature.

That’s interesting, because it sounds like people that have lived in that area longer are less inclined to fully caring about nature. Do you think their roots in the area have something to do with it?

I think there’s a sense of familial pride, for lack of a better word. These people’s families have had that land forever, with generation after generation after generation living on that specific plot of land for so long. If you ask them about climate change they probably wouldn’t receive it very well, but at some point they do care about the state of the nature around them. At some point, it’s hard to ignore it when something gets harmed by pollution or some other environmental cause. It’s more than a political thing. Because they feel a collection to that land and importance for their own family, they ultimately have to care.

Moving to your time here at UNC so far – do you think there’s a different attitude here? Is concern for the environment as common here, compared to in Boone?

In Boone it’s different because nature is part of every day. We drive on federally protected land every day out there. Over here, that relationship isn’t as close. But people here are a lot more educated, and especially people educated in science topics are more willing to understand and accept the idea of climate change.

There’s also a lot of composting and other environmental work, but it feels a little less genuine. At Boone it’s like we do it because it’s our home, and we’re all super connected to nature because of its beauty. Over here, it’s just another problem to solve and it’s viewed in a very logical and typical way. It’s less of a connection to nature and more of an intellectual problem.

Do you think your relationship with nature growing up has changed how you want to live going forward?

Yes, absolutely. Growing up around so much nature has made me want to live somewhere that has good access to nature. Without those experiences I think I would’ve liked to live in a high rise somewhere in a super urban area, but that part of my life has made me want to be closer to nature. I also want to do things related to nature, like nature photography. And my definition of doing things for fun is stuff like camping, rather than a spa day or something indoors.

Any specific dream places to live in the future?

There’s so many! Iceland seems really cool. I want to live in Washington or Oregon or California – somewhere on that coast. I’d love to live in Japan, but the language is so hard to learn. But we’ll see, it would be awesome.

Last question: do you think nature has influenced your personality or character in any way?

I think it’s made me pretty laid back and chilled out. I’m very- I feel like I’m not very intense, and I don’t need much to be happy. That’s something nature helps with.