When Peter Jenkins was 22 years old, he said he hated America.
"I was a suburban brat from Connecticut," Jenkins said. "I thought I was so smart and hip."
In an effort to discover what America was really about, Jenkins decided to trek across the country from his home. The journey lasted five years and resulted in a book that detailed his adventures.
Jenkins described some of his experiences from traveling across the United States Monday during his keynote address "Searching for America." The lecture was the kickoff to Earth Week 2003, which lasts until April 22 and is coordinated by the Natural Resources Club.
At 22, Jenkins had just graduated from college in 1973. He said he was an art major, a vegetarian and very disillusioned with the country.
Jenkins said he felt the nation's government was corrupt, pollution was killing the planet and people were generally bad.
His decision to travel across America was inspired by talks he had with a security guard at his campus, Jenkins said. Jenkins said he would complain to the guard often, until one day he told Jenkins how good America really was.
"He said if I don't care about the country, why stay in it," Jenkins said. "I might as well go somewhere else."
Jenkins didn't travel overseas, but he said he walked the country to discover new lands and people.
"I wanted to meet different kinds of Americans," Jenkins said.
He said one of the most memorable stories in his journey came early.
Jenkins met a man who lived in the heart of the Appalachian mountains on the western tip of Virginia. Jenkins said he was told the man "hated people too."
Jenkins said he stayed with Homer Davenport, then 63, in his home for four to five days, living off the earth.
Davenport grew his own food and had no running water or electricity, Jenkins said.
Jenkins said Davenport invited him to live with him permanently to take care of the land, but Jenkins said he still had to find answers to his questions about America.
"I wanted to figure out where I fit in the world," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said his trek led him to such places as the rolling plains of New Mexico and the swamps of Louisiana.
The world's beauty taught him a lesson, Jenkins said.
"We rarely never feel the human being is supreme, but when you get in a place like Alaska and realize what a little pinprick we are, I think it's extremely healthy to the human condition," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said Americans get so caught up in the fast pace of life and have so many material luxuries that the little wonders in life go unnoticed.
"We don't work," Jenkins said. "Things just come so easy. We're detached, and that's why people long for the earth and environment.
"If you're so scared to leave the house because you're afraid of getting raped or murdered, what are you going to do? Watch television all day? The advertisers will love you, because they have you. You're a drone."
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