For our Earth Lodge initiation, I was required to find quotes that represent my Earth Lodge experience and include it in a notebook. There were many things I wanted my quotes to include: The interesting things about the environment I’ve learned in class, the great connections I have made with fellow Earth Lodgers, the community service, etc. I had a tough time finding quotes that summarize each of these experiences. It was at that point I realized that I’ve been ignoring the connection between the different experiences over my past year in earth lodge. The experiences I’ve gained through earth lodge are all interconnected and should be combined instead of singled out. Sometimes being too focused on one aspect of my experience made me forget about the other important aspects of my experiences; often time taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture would improve my experiences significantly.
Community service is not only a way improve the surrounding we live in, it is also a way to make connections with the community. For my second community trip, I went to Belle Isle to pick up trash. In my blog post, I talked about how I found cigarette butts and stickers near the river. I then proceeded to talk about how cigarette butts are not decomposable and are harmful to the environment and the social implications of green organizations focusing too much on their goal, and not realizing the sacrifice that they’re making to archive their goal. There were a few other Earth Lodgers on the same trip as me, however, their reaction to the trip were very different. In Carolyn’s post, she mentioned “several members of the community … approached us and thanked us for our work”. Carolyn then concludes that all these little things demonstrated how much Earth Lodge as well as the community are in love with our place. Somehow over the 4 hours service trip, I put all my focus on the negative impacts of littering and made assumptions about how most people don’t care about the environment; I failed to notice that people are actually thankful for what I was doing and make meaningful connection with the community. I learned all the facts and science behind cigarette butts and contributed my part to improve the local community. However, I did not connect to the local community, which is a big part of community service.
Community service is also highly connected to learning. For my first service trip to the William Byrd farm, a farm that aims to bridge the gap between the wealthy and the poor in the Richmond area, I worked on different projects and got to know my supervisor very well. Through talking to my supervisor, Matthew, I learned so much about the William Byrd farm. I also learn valuable lesson about life. In my first service blog post, I talked about how Matthew’s view on life greatly differed from my views of life. I learned that a simple lifestyle can mean a lot more than a life of luxury with the help of passion and purpose. During the same service trip, Mike also noticed that there were a lot of vandalisms going on in the neighborhood around the William Byrd farm and questioned if the things he was doing were worth it. In a later blog post, he stated that “it is better to be connected to the world, despite these minor set backs, than it is to be isolated in our own academic coma”. Often time, I find myself in the same situation as Mike, questioning if I am being too idealistic or what I’m doing really is worthwhile. There will always be some kind of set back to different situations, however, we should not stop trying just because of these minor set backs. What we learn from community service should not only be things like how to build a bee house or how to weed out grass, we should go above and beyond and interpret what community service really means. Improving the community is not the only goal for community service; we should also reach out and learn from people around us.
Knowledge also plays an important role in the larger picture. In one of my previous reflection blog posts, I talked about how I started to appreciate the connection between science and nature. Science and nature used to be completely separate entities to me, for some reason I thought that understanding science would ruin the nature of things. I was wrong; the connection between nature and science is strong. Adrienne had the same experience as me, she noted in her blog post that “As a later learner of different species, memorizing the physical characteristics of thirty local trees initially seemed daunting, but it soon became my favorite topic to study. With each tree I learned, I enjoyed walking around campus more”. It is important to combine science with its environmental applications when studying them. Despite the obvious relationship between nature and the knowledge of science, there is also a strong connection between nature and friendship. Nature has the power to bring people together, the strong bonds of earth lodge formed on the trails of Belle Isle, the banks of the James and the trips to the mountains. The knowledge of science helped us appreciate nature more and therefore created stronger connections between earth lodgers. Knowledge is an essential part of meaningful connections.
There are also things that I can learn from the fellow earth lodgers. The day to day interaction I have with earth lodgers not only contributed to the strong bond I have with them, I also learn something new from them every day. In one of Mike’s previous posts, he gave me the idea of letting things go and taking it easy. Over the course of the semester, there are many other moments that I am inspired by fellow earth lodgers, Carolyn starts her day at 6 in the morning and go to bed very early, Josh’s healthy eating habits and Mark’s enthusiasm for our service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, etc. All these little things that Earth Lodgers do every day inspire me and encourage me to improve myself every day. Through these connections, I learned so much and it is very fulfilling.
My Earth Lodge experience can never divided into unrelated subgroups of experience. Sometimes I fail to see all the details between my experiences, however, it is important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. My earth lodge experience is a very integrative and rewarding experience and there are many connections between different experiences, we learn through service, make meaningful connection through service and knowledge, and learn from our meaningful connection with people. I have learned a tremendous amount from my Earth Lodge experience and I am very thankful to have this experience.