I have to start off by saying that when I first applied for this internship I did not know what I was getting myself into at all, and even sometimes during my work I still didn’t know, but that’s honestly the best thing about this internship: it gives you free will to find out what it is you are interested in doing and an opportunity to actually do it. Often times, people would ask me, “where do you work?” “what’s your job?” “what do you do?” and I finally figured out the best answer: I get paid to learn. This entire internship has consisted of me getting out of my comfort zone, learning about a subject I was not familiar with, and also getting my hands dirty by doing some hard work. When I say hard work, I mean really hard work! There were days where I spent 4-6 hours outside working in a garden, pulling weeds, watering beds, transplanting large plants, shoveling dirt, hammering rebar into the ground, etc, but I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. My skills have been tested when I had to give presentations to the kids in the Teatro de Artes Summer Camp and the kids in the Seguin Area Youth Leadership Academy, my mind has been expanded by all of the knowledge I’ve gained while doing research and by simply talking to others who had so much information and experience to offer, and my hands have been worked as I learned to build and maintain a garden. I’ll be honest and say that I expected to have grown an entire garden by myself, completed several presentations, and created several signs for the garden by the time I was finished with this internship, but that didn’t exactly happen. I did, however, grown quite a few raised beds, create one presentation, and captured the attention of a group of high school students who have chosen to help out with the community garden as a service project. Along with this, I got to inform lots of family, friends, and strangers about the Community Garden and vegetables simply through conversation. Overall, I gained so much experience and information that I will take with me for the rest of my life, despite not knowing what the end product of this internship would be. Working with different people at Teatro de Artes, Everything Jesus Ranch, and the Seguin LULAC Community Garden, along with my supervisor and Shelby Thibodeaux and all of the staff from Ogallala Commons made this an enjoyable experience because they were so willing to want to help me grow.
