Final thoughts

I am thankful for the opportunity to be affiliated with Ogallala Commons by way of Siempre Sustainable Seguin.  My internship was full of twists and turns, personal development, and growth that I don’t think I would have experienced in such a short amount of time, if at all.  This experience gave me the opportunity to travel, to present to audiences in fields I want to explore, and to meet people who are modern day renaissance men and women who are enlightened not only by book knowledge, but life. Starting with orientation I was launched into jumping out of my comfort zone, which is good and required for growth, luckily I quickly learn to roll with the flow. I was asked to participate with others in reciting a dramatic poem in front of the whole meeting. Anyone who knows me knows that theater arts were never my strong point, but in this instance it was my diving board for many more adventures to come. My next journey took me to Waco to be part of a panel at a conference to present information on youth engagement. I was presenting with a county judge and a youth counselor to people from all over the state with all backgrounds. I made new friends and great contacts for networking in the future. I was then asked to present to the city of Gonzales to help them launch their first Youth Engagement days event, and with the leadership of Cynthia Green, I foresee a great event happening in November. I felt a need to expand my knowledge of Co-ops after an interesting conversation with a colleague about organic food and food sources. I was lucky enough to be selected to attend a co-op conference in Austin were again I was surrounded by people with a wealth of knowledge in a subject matter that I feel I need to grow into. One of my goals working in Seguin was to create ways to inform the public of educational, health, and justice issues. An opportunity presented itself for me to write for the local paper, and through that, I feel my voice was heard at another level and I like to think that I may have wrote something  that affected someone in a positive manner.   Another requirement of the internship was to research your hometown. I grew up in the same area for almost all my life, yet if it wasn’t for this internship, I never would have known the history of my town as I do now and I am grateful for that. My intentions from the beginning were to do something for personal growth. I never would have dreamed that I would be able to intertwine so many of my loves into one project and that happened when I got the opportunity to be involved with the Water Captains. This is a group of people from various religious backgrounds (and I do mean various) who came together to try to get political attention focused on water rights in Texas. Water, political justice, and religion all rolled into one.  This is where my passion lies now. But above and beyond all this, the bulk of my internship focused on one presentation to be given by my mentor and the man who introduced me to a whole new world of friends, collogues, and additional mentors. The research I did for the Krost symposium was what opened my eyes to the problems so close to home that you are almost blind to them. When thinking of social and environmental injustice people tend to think of third world countries, but it is literally in our own back yard and this part of my internship made me more aware and active in my community. I feel this internship was what I needed to take my life to another level and I would like to sincerely thank everyone involved who shared this journey with me and I can’t wait to do it again.