Being a freshman here at Missouri State University has been intimidating, to say the least. Albeit, it has been a wonderful experience and I have enjoyed every moment so far. As a freshman, I’m enrolled in a UHC-110 class, and I was required to read this year’s common reader novel “The Good Food Revolution”, by Will Allen. This book, in a way, sparked a small fire in my heart, wanting to me learn more about urban agriculture and the inner-workings of how such a business is conducted. Thankfully, one day, I happened to be looking through the campus LINK and saw ‘Bear Breaks’, a club dedicated to sending students of MSU on immersion trips to certain areas over breaks and allowing them to provide quality community service to said communities; This was the beginning of something amazing. I was ecstatic to learn that one of the Fall break trips was in alliance with ‘Growing Power’, the company based in Milwaukee that Will Allen created to expand education about urban agriculture and create a ‘Good Food Revolution.’ I applied for this trip and was thrilled to learn I had been accepted. After some basic informatory meetings and the arrival of Fall break, we were on our way to Milwaukee, a mere 10-hour journey. Upon arrival, you could certainly tell that Fall was here; Acres upon acres of trees in all sorts of colors and shades and there was a perfect crisp in the air. We first made our way to the Lutheran church in which we were staying at to drop our bags off. After which, the majority of our group split off and walked a short distance (maybe a mile) to Lake Michigan while some others went to a local market and purchased food items that we would be using for meals over the course of the four days and three nights we would be there. Observing lake Michigan, we were all in awe of how incredibly huge it was. We considered that to be a perfect start to this great trip. To myself and many others, this was our first time in Milwaukee and we were excited to explore the city and do good, hard work for its people. As our 1st day of service began and we reached Growing Power, we were given a “quick” 1-hour tour of the facility and then given jobs to do for the next four hours, all the while becoming better friends with each other, laughing and panting at the hard farm-life we were all experiencing. As lunchtime came and went in the blink of an eye, I could tell that not a soul amongst our group was regretting this trip. That night, we spent quite a few hours walking along the riverwalk and exploring beautiful Milwaukee downtown and trying some local gelato and pizza-by-the-slice. After heading back to the church to retire for the night, we had our reflections for the day and began our recharge for the coming day. Little did we know that we would performing grueling work come 8 o’clock the next morning-today’s task was to transport approximately 150 or so wheelbarrows full of compost to a nearby ‘hoop-house’ and create growing lanes for the production of plants. Four and a half hours later, the work was done and never had I felt more accomplished by manual labor. Through our efforts as a team and perseverance through the rain, we accomplished a task that might have taken the few Growing Power staff a week to do. It was this feeling that stuck with me for the remainder of the trip. The fact that the work we put in made a huge difference for Growing Power and the thanks we received made everything worth the sweat in my eyes and mud on my new boots. Also, as a reward for our hard work, Mr. Allen himself allowed us to pick our fill of fruits and vegetables to bring back and cook- a truly monumental token of appreciation on his part. I must say, at the end of this trip, I was incredibly sad to be heading back to Springfield and realizing class will be resuming Monday, but the sadness will not remain for long; I have already begun discussing my next Bear Breaks trip.