Hi, thought I'd start by just mentioning a bit of background:
I've often wondered what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn't think working with kids would ever feature. I now work in primary schools, and although I used to think other people’s children were just a waste of time, I've owned my baggage, and now think an hour in their company can teach me so much! I'm currently a teaching assistant, and I've recently trained to be a Forest School leader, hoping that I get to use that to teach primary and secondary school children how to appreciate and learn from nature.
I never really considered the importance of the outdoors until moving to the UK, because growing up in the urban sprawl of Tokyo, I was pretty much living in a concrete jungle where there were lights on 24/7 everywhere! Now that I have lived in Sheffield for a good 15 years, I've decided I could never enjoy living somewhere which wasn't close to the mountains! I have developed interests in camping, hiking, cycling, rock climbing, picking berries in the woods, and nature writing probably as a direct result of living so close to the Peak District.
My initial response to signing up to Natural Friends was pretty optimistic, I've treated it as a way of meeting lots of interesting people with similar reasons for being here. I really enjoy meeting new people anyway (ok, it can be pretty scary sometimes, admittedly) but I think once I find common ground with someone, I can always seem to have a great conversation over tea or some spicy chai!
Because I intend to meet that someone who I'd like to get to know a little better, I should say that the sort of person who will probably find it easier to understand me is someone who can enjoy subtle pleasures: perhaps the smell of spring when winter finally eases up, or going wild swimming in the summer and enjoying that first mouthful of hot tea from the flask afterwards, or that electric feeling during a partnered dance, where everything just seems to move fluidly and in harmony to the music!
I'm probably going out on a limb a bit here, but someone who has a bit of a sense of adventure in them might get why I feel the need to sometimes travel a bit further afield than the UK (preferably not using flights to get there) and perhaps understand why my cooking style is a bit.. experimental! I don't think these websites are a substitute for getting out into the real world and meeting people, but I do think they're a good place to start if you're not always able to get out to everything that's going on in the busy city! I’d love to hear from you if you feel some affinity with nature and want to meet someone who can affirm a desire to preserve something of your own wildness, be it through creativity, or nature, or rambling walks followed by cosy feet warming sessions in front of open fires.
My ideal in life is to be with someone special to share life with, and to be around friends who I genuinely care for. My favourite stories often involve having a laugh after getting lost and then finding the track again, and enjoying a good conversation along the way. I could also mention the importance of good, home made flapjack..
