110 MensHealth.com | March 2017
I was recently reminded of all this when my son’s kindergarten class took a field trip to a local pond. I’m a biologist at North Carolina State University, so the teachers asked me to come along. To prepare, I loaded up the car with nets, rubber boots, binoculars, field guides, and a snake stick. In my enthusiasm, I forgot to pack lunch for me and my son. When we pulled into the parking lot, I realized that I was the only one who’d brought a trunk full of gear. So as not to embarrass my son, I pulled out just one net, one guide, and one pair of binoculars. Reluctantly, I left the snake stick behind.
O p e n i n g s p r e a d: A s h l e y C a r l o n /O f f s e t ( p h o to), D o u g M o r e h e a d /A l a m y (te x t u r e); A n g e l a P a r ke r/O f f s e t (a b o v e)
Some of my favorite times in childhood were when I was outside catching things. I caught frogs. I caught fish. I caught snakes by the hundreds. I overturned logs and climbed trees. I explored. There must have been limits to my journeys—times I was supposed to be home, distances I wasn’t supposed to exceed— but I don’t recall them. Instead I remember only what I caught. Any childhood photo of me in which my feet are dry and I’m not holding a live animal was probably staged.