It was my second year of college when I really learned what courage was all about. I have always been...and will always be...a strong environmentalist. The college was growing and a larger student enrollment meant more building...more dorms, more classrooms and bigger parking lots. There were lots of trees on our campus but the grandest tree of all was a huge old sprawling oak tree that was estimated to be well over one hundred years old. The exact location of this grand old tree was to be the new student parking lot. Well, we did what students did best in the seventies and formed some really strong and noisey protests. This, combined with letter writing campaigns and phone calls to elected officials, did no good. The day arrived for the bulldozers to arrive. I very bravely, stood up to bat and allowed friends to chain me to that grand old tree. For over six hours, I rested my back on the trunk of that beautiful old oak tree. The bulldozer halted and the media arrived. Early in the seventh hour, the college president announced that the tree would be saved and the parking area relocated. Well, that tree still stands proudly today, totally unharmed by growth. That was my first real stand to do the right thing. It was then that I realized that people could make a difference and now thirty years later, I still stand up for my beliefs!