A common reaction that we have received on this Atlanta Bear Breaks trip has been, “you all chose to do THIS…for your spring break? It is as if they are double checking to make sure that they heard us correctly and to make sure that we understand that we could’ve gone to the beach instead. That question never ceases to bring a smile to my face now. I had been asked that question before I even arrived, due to the fact that this will be my last spring break, which in my mind meant last chance to be apart of bear breaks. I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this immersion trip, but I took a close friend’s, aka Emily’s, word for it being something worthwhile to pursue. She wasn’t wrong.
I wish that I had the right words or completely could describe how much this experience has already impacted me. This trip to Atlanta has given me a new unique group of friends right off the bat that I was forced to hang out with, yes, but not forced to build friendships with. I am extremely grateful to have been stuck with people who share the same common goal as me on this spring break, which is to personally grow and help our community grow. We have given each other new perspectives and food for thought that we wouldn’t have probably recognized or considered on our own. Therefore, we appear to compliment and challenge each other quite well.
Honestly, I believe that we got to the point where people were saying, “time for family dinner,” and “thanks for dinner, mom,” and “can you take our picture, dad?” so fast because of the new experiences and insights we have endured by each other’s side day in and day out. We have gotten so close and comfortable with each other, which is evident in our GroupMe and memes blowing up our feed. Our group has taken advantage of the down time series of events, such as weeding at the park, filing papers at agencies, and sitting on the Marta to get to know our group members and people around us. We have embraced the public transportation system and the fact that even with smart phones, maps, and recommendations, it’s still possible to get lost in Atlanta for 4 hours. Sometimes even with all the resources, you still get lost. How can we expect people without all the possible resources to find their way in life as well?
I believe that I speak for us all when I say that we are trying to push ourselves and each other out of our comfort zones, but also encourage each other to use our strengths on this journey. Yesterday, we went to the West End Community Urban Garden and I actually stated out loud that, “we’re not in Missouri anymore.” I’ve never had a garden before, but if I had one, I’d want it to be in Atlanta. Anything and everything that I like appears to be able to grow here. I first assumed that we would only be gardening, but it was silly of me to think that putting plants into the ground is all that needed to be done.
That expectation was pushed aside as soon as the owner found out that we had a construction major, Zach, with us and proceeded to publicly hug him and ask him to build some things. This led to some of our students helping build the foundation of a green house. I got to hold the tape measure at times, but it was probably best that I wasn’t responsible for the power tools. Most of my day consisted of getting an incredible arm work out by transporting potted plants, cinder blocks, and other miscellaneous items from one place of the garden to the other. Other parts of it included cleaning off the area for the green house to reside. After lunch I participated in raking high mounds of mulch and carrying mulch to the dumping site, which was what some of our students had been doing all day. This project taught me to appreciate baby steps and doing what you can with what you’ve got. We couldn’t get the entire green house, items moved, or mulch moved off of the driveway in one day, but you could sure tell that MO State left their mark. If you ever happen to be in Atlanta and stop by, be on the look out for our spray painted name on the fence!
As important as making whatever kind of impact we can make is, a big part of what we have benefited from and truly enjoyed is interacting with people that impact us instead. Yesterday, we were thankful to have gotten the experience along side women from Spelman College, which is a historically black liberal arts college in Atlanta. Throughout this trip we have interacted and learned things from people that live in and around Atlanta, but this was our first time getting the perspective of college students in the area. Like us, they are also pursuing an alternative spring break.
Being a fairly shy person, I was relieved to be approached by such outgoing, curious, and friendly individuals from Spelman. By the end of our volunteer time, we were all raving about how awesome these girls were. I personally got to work closely with one of my group members, Yuting, and two girls from Spelman yesterday. We got along so well that we ended up getting a picture together at the end of our service and then also were called over to stand by them in the overall group picture.
The girls from Spelman acted as if they had been friends with us forever, not for just a few hours. One of them picked spiders and other insects off of items so that another girl could carry them comfortably. They asked us our names and made sure to call us by our names. They asked about our majors and life goals as if they were invested and truly interested in our future now that we bonded by helping each other carry the heavier loads, laughing after realizing we were trying to pick up potted plants with roots in the ground, cleaning up each other’s messes of spilled soil, etc. Overall, topics of conversation ranged from personal interests and facts to their views of diversity, culture, school, and urban development.
I’m so glad that we got to have another group of college students with us so that we got to hear a little bit of their story and about how their environment right now will take them to new heights in the future. A variety of perspectives, new friendships, events, sights, and exposures have helped strengthen our understanding of the hardships and also the success of urban development. There’s still going to be people that ask, “you all chose to do THIS…on your spring break?!” Even though it may seem like a foreign concept still, it was an easy choice for me to make this spring break and is a decision that I’d make again and again.
–Kate.