Seeds Of Education

As
an athlete, you can say I have seen my fair share of hard work. Well,
think again. Jamaica has given me a whole new meaning to what it
means to put in a good day of hard work. At the St. Anthony Mary’s
Child mission home for teen moms, I worked on the soil all day in the
sun, ok so it was only about 2 hours with plenty of water and breaks.
The landscaper Mr. Reed must have thought he was being punished,
because it was difficult to get our group to focus on the task to get
it done. Oddly or maybe not, the two athletes endured the longest and
I actually feel our contribution was a big help. Let me explain. We
were given the task to plant Bok Choy cabbage so that we provide
fresh vegetables for the mothers and their children of the home. The
sun was hot and terrible, but I got through it by teamwork and
perseverance, which definitely comes from being an athlete. This
experience is teaching me how to build endurance and be more
appreciative. I realize that I don’t
have to work as hard as the people here for food.

Thinking
about the explanation from the one of Jamaica’s
representatives from the National environmental agency about the
difference between dirt and soil, I can compare some of that
definition to the things my life. Like the soil we were using for the
plants reminds me of education, because if you put seeds in dirt they
won’t
grow, like if you put kids in bad school they won’t
learn. Dirt is dead with no nutrients to support life and bad schools
don’t
have the systems or resources to support academic achievement. A good
education helps its students prosper and learn more, which helps them
gain more opportunities, like Learn Serve International.

I
originally thought I was traveling to South Africa and was
disappointed mostly because I wouldn’t
be with my friends. As we continued to work on the garden and
surprised Mr. Reed by how much we were able to get done, I know I was
meant to be in Jamaica. It is after all a part of my history I don’t
know that well. I can now say, the rows of plants we worked on are
required to be a certain distance apart, next to the valleys that
laid next to rows that would support other plants’
growth
are the same rows that reminded me of the rows of desk at school, as
the rows of books, as the seats on our transportation here and
traveling across land and water, all representing order stacked up
for our usage that we often take for granted.