November 2026 "How Long Could You Survive?" by Emily Rawlings
The season of Thanksgiving is full of ushy-gushy sentiments about things like loving one’s family and appreciating the unique pleasure of getting to know one’s dear friends, but there are more important topics to consider—can you survive in an unknown wilderness? In this seventh issue of Delectable Discourse, where I ask college students a scrumptious new question each month, I asked the following: If you were one of the original European settlers in America, how long do you think you would have survived and why?
“Uhhh, I probably wouldn’t have survived very long because I have a really high metabolism, and I would’ve starved really fast. Um, and I can’t run very fast, so I wouldn’t have been able to run after a deer to get it, and I don’t have the patience to fish.” -Paula R.
“That’s a broad question because I don’t know what type of training I would have received for survival compared to today. What tools or skills would I have had? Given the knowledge I currently know or given the knowledge I would have had in the day? I answer: Given the knowledge you would have had back in the day . . . knowing that when people traveled back in those days, they usually tried to bring a lot of supplies, it would be contingent on how much food supplies we would have had, and we would have had to learn what crops we could grow in that area and what animals we could have hunted, such as deers, caribou, fish . . . Another factor would be how much support you would have. Do you have a wife and family to support you? Siblings, or others in general? Paula R. teases interviewee: haha, you didn’t answer any of the questions Well, I answered it to the best of my ability according to my current knowledge. The question implies that I would have died prematurely. I could have lived a full, long life.
It was a broad question. I like my answer; my answer is still longer than yours *in reference to Paula R.” -William R.
“Uh, that’s a great question. Not very long. Uh, like a month. They didn’t have like super warm blankies, you know?” -Eric H.
“Um, um, haha, I think I would have survived longer than the turkey. Also, why did they choose to kill the turkey? Was that why they decided on turkeys, because they say, ‘gobble, gobble,’ and they were like ‘Yes, please. Don’t mind if I do.’ Um, I think I would have survived longer than the women because I don’t want to reproduce, so I wouldn’t have died from childbirth. No, I think I wouldn’t have survived because they didn’t have hotdogs back then. You know, the vegan ones like Linketts.” -Ruth R.
“Probably up until the point where I would’ve got sick while traveling. Like tuberculosis or dysentery. Um, and for the why, because I would probably just do what everybody else is doing. Yep. Oh, settlers! I was thinking of the Oregon Trail! Okay, so it’s on the east coast in the forest with a lot of mist. I would imagine there is a tall wooden fence around houses with sickly people in them. Um, I would probably get pneumonia in the first week and that’s it.” -Anonymous
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