Greetings from Yosemite National Park

I’ve lived in California, the Central Valley to be exact, most of my life, and up until my freshman year in college I had no idea what Yosemite was when someone would nonchalantly mention it. It wasn’t until a long hard school week that my best friend and I decided to find out what this place looked like. Three miles up Yosemite Falls later, I felt a deep connection to this place…as if it was a place I was meant to be in…it was magical! I left the park feeling better than when I arrived. How was it that no one ever spoke highly about this beautiful place? Why had I never been here when it was less than two hours away? I felt deprived for having to wait 18 years to find such a place, but I also felt blessed because I now knew about it. When I transferred to UC Merced I took the initiative to spend more time in Yosemite, and one of the ways I did that was by interning with the Yosemite Leadership Program Summer Internship. I lived and worked in Yosemite for three months educating student groups and visitors about Yosemite’s rich natural and cultural history, hoping that they too would leave the park feeling better than when they arrived. After my internship I received the opportunity to become a Yosemite National Park Ranger for UC Merced’s Wilderness Education Center, and I was able to take students to Yosemite and share magical experiences with them, bridge a gap between the city and the outdoors, and share my enduring love for natural places with everyone I know. Keep the national park magic alive!

Sincerely,
Cecilia