[INDISTINCT MURMURING, AS IF SOMEONE SPEAKING FROM ACROSS THE ROOM, UNMICROPHONED.]
LAUREL
Who am I? Yeah, okay. Um… I like cats, and the color green, and fantasy stories whose target audience is middle schoolers. Um, I really love cheesecake and alfredo pasta but I think my favorite food is garlicky green beans. And honestly, I worry people think that’s weird, most people don’t say a vegetable for that sort of thing—what? That’s not what you wanna know?
[MORE MURMURING]
LAUREL
Okay, um. [Slight laugh] Hi, my name’s Laurel. I’m nonbinary, my hobbies include writing, reading, and embroidery. I used to be a huge theatre nerd—and, honestly I still am—sorry? That’s not—
[MORE MURMURING]
LAUREL
[in a slightly annoyed tone:]Well, okay. My name is Laurel Eve. I’m a Creative Writing and Publishing & Editing double major at Susquehanna University—[IS CUT OFF BY:]
[MORE MURMURING]
LAUREL
(huff of annoyance) I don’t think I get your question.
[MURMURING]
LAUREL
Oh. I understand. Um. yeah… I guess that’s a bit more tough of a question to answer.
[A BEAT.]
Okay. I think I would be a tree in a forest. I think all of us are trees in a forest, actually.
[slight laugh]
It’s a good metaphor for me, because I love the wild outdoors. Always have. Did you know one of my nicknames as a kid was ‘friend of nature?’ Always turning over rocks to look at bugs and reading wildlife magazines as much as I consumed my library books. It’s a love that’s stuck with me to this day. Even after being on this campus for years, I still get a little thrill every time I see one of our many squirrels.
[SQUIRREL CHITTER]
LAUREL
I have a love for all nature, but it’s the forest that always called to me the most. One of my favorite hobbies is identifying all the different native trees, and cursing out the invasive ones: I’ve gotten more than one side-eye for cursing out the Bradford Pear or Tree of Heaven. There’s so many different types of trees, and each one is so fascinating and unique. It’s… It’s easy to compare them to people.
[FOREST AMBIENCE FADES IN]
LAUREL
Each tree, no matter the species, lives in the forest and consumes the same resources.[AMBIENCE FADES.] They need water, and nutrients from the soil, and sunlight on their leaves. And at a first glance, someone might think that the trees in the forest compete for these resources. I mean, it makes sense. That some taller ones stretch their limbs out, absorbing all the sunlight, and leave smaller saplings to die, malnourished in the shade. Only so much space in the sky, after all, and every man—hm, plant—for themself.
[SOUNDS OF SOIL AND SMALL SHIFTING ROCKS: WE GO BENEATH.]
LAUREL
But that’s not the whole picture, because underneath the soil, the roots of the forest stretch deep. And connecting to each root, strung together in a massive network of strands, is mycelium.
[A BEAT, THEN:]
[LO-FI ELECTRONIC MUSIC BEGINS: “If You Lived Here You’d Be Radioactive By Now” BY Aldous Ichnite]
LAUREL
Mycelium is a fungal structure. It’s the roots of a fungus or mushroom, while what we see on the surface is the mushroom, the fruiting body. It spreads through the entire ground of a forest, connecting to the roots of individual trees and tangling the entire forest into one living entity, like living arteries. And like arteries, the mycelium network serves a vital purpose in carrying resources across the forest to those who need it. Trees in a forest communicate with each other through this “woodwide web”, and send nitrogen, water, carbon, and other minerals to those who aren’t getting enough. No one goes hungry, or thirsty, or can’t get enough sunlight, because the forest provides.
[BY NOW, MUSIC HAS FADED.]
[AN INDISTINCT QUESTION FROM INTERVIEWER.]
LAUREL
Yeah, I—I’m getting to that. What this has to do with me is that people are like trees. Society is the forest. We like to look at the surface and think we’re all competing. That there’s only so much to go around, so we need to fight to survive against our fellow peers, and stand alone. It’s this culture of individualism that bores into our limbs and our minds like a parasitic worm.
But underneath, at the core, people don’t stand alone. We stand in the forest, and we’re connected by millions of tiny strands that run deeper and truer than the lies up above. We support each other. We’re a community. When someone needs support, we raise each other up, give them water and food and shelter from the storm. We contribute resources towards those who need help to fight against infection and disease and termites and wood rot.
So who am I? Well, I’m a Laurel tree. But I’m in a forest of aspens and oaks and poplars and pines. I am the people who support me, who have brought me this far and will carry me forward—I’m so much more than an individual, standing alone. When I speak, a hundred voices speak with me and through me. When I’m in pain, a steady maple or soothing birch eases my fears and provides safe ground to lean on. And when I feel joy, the voice of the forest sings out the same, and they know that I have their back as much as they have mine, and there is no one who stands alone.
[A SLOW AND CALM PLUCKED MELODY BEGINS, “Victory” BY Komiku. IT IS PEACEFUL YET UPLIGHTING.]
LAUREL
The other thing about trees is that they’re always growing. They never stop striving, never stop changing. They bloom, and create fruit, and sometimes lose their leaves, and sometimes need rest before they begin again. They’re never a completed product, a finished form. There is no end goal—only the path forward, the sun above, and the cool soil below.