Week 8 Reflection

I’m wrapping up my internship this week, and I have many, many thoughts. First and foremost, I love Tucson. I hadn’t spent time in Tucson in any large way before this summer, but now, I want to, again and again. This place is bursting with community and groundedness, something NS/S really emulated for me. For an internship to teach of the land it’s situated on as much as the work it performs is something I’m really grateful for.

Also, I learned SO much this summer, in ways I did and didn’t expect to. I learned how a nonprofit works (like really works), comprehensive gardening skills, seed saving methods, the importance of partnerships, and perhaps most importantly, what I find joy in and want to continue.

As healing as it was to work outside for so much of the summer, the highlights of my internship were when I helped other people, which is to say, I want to work more with people in the future. This feels like a really obvious realization or something I should have figured out earlier, but I genuinely feel dissuaded from pure lab work or other work that does not directly deal with people. I’ve been in the mud with trying to figure out what I want to major in, and for so long, I’ve heard conflicting opinions on how what you major in you don’t become, you become what you want. That’s all to say, I’ve realized that whatever I major in, I will find a way to serve people and be around people. My academic interests aren’t necessarily disparate from what brings me joy; they just don’t have to be totally aligned all the time because I can hold both at the same time. That being said, realizing that I do want to work with people more than I want to work with plants did kind of erupt realizations about what I want to major in!

Moreover, another thing I’m reflecting on is working at nonprofits as an intern. I had an internship last summer with an organization I really loved and worked with all throughout high school. When I interned with them, because they knew me so well, I got to lead my own project and become more of a staff member than an intern. While NS/S did all they could to make me feel welcome (and I did feel welcome), interning for such a little time for an organization that’s super complex felt limiting in the ways in which I could pursue independent work without stepping on people’s toes. However, that did force me to be creative and learn new skills (like mapping) which I’m really, really grateful for.

Lastly, even though one of my realizations this summer was that I prefer working directly with people than plants or seeds, I find the distinction between the two incredibly blurred. We are nature in so many ways: we grow, we die, we bloom, we have off seasons, we are abundant. Moreover, food sovereignty (or the ability for a community to grow their own food), specifically with traditional food, is so incredibly important. A few weeks ago, I watched the Anthony Bourdain documentary. That movie combined with this internship taught me how food is politics, culture, housing, land, history, etc.

So, understanding how to grow, the importance of seeds, food, & farms, and how we connect to all of it is something I’ll carry with me forever, regardless if it shows up in a career sense or not.

I wanted to thank the Bogle Fellowship for making this summer possible because I’m so grateful for it!!