When was the last time you went on a trip? Did you go to another state, country, or continent? What did you do? Who did you meet? What did you eat? Who did you go with?
When you think of a school trip to a farm, what do you think of? You would probably think of doing manual labor. It includes picking weeds, picking strawberries, taking fruit, and much more work. You also might think of running in the fields, as well as cooking and surviving on your homemade food. Throughout the trip, we spent so much time complaining and groaning about how boring and hard the work was. That was until we realized that farmers have to work more than three times as much as we did per day. We also realized how much value farmers bring to our everyday lives. They work countless hours to provide us with food. When we were brought to this realization, we felt more grateful towards people like Farmer Paul who are the roots of all the food that comes to our grocery stores every single day. This also helped us power through the work that we had to do at the farm. This trip might not have been a luxurious beach vacation, but the bonding experiences and tribe building/strengthening far outweighed all the lows we encountered.
Instead of just simply wasting the rest of the day away, during the time that we were not working, we were talking, having meaningful conversations, and much more. Many people simply ignore and pass over the prospect of the meaningful and important conversations that we have within our community, but this is not a trivial fact. It is an important and harmonious part of the society that we are in. During these momentous times, we talked about respecting the members of our society, be it a woman or a man. We also talked about what it means to "be a man" and how vulnerability is not embraced as a manly trait and the different stereotypes that are embedded in our culture and society today.
Through these discussions, we learned so much about how the world is and how it should be. We've learned that certain genders or races are disrespected in certain ways. We learned that this should not be so, as they are a vital part of our society, as our men. We also learned that being a man does not simply translate to the things that society portrays it to be. Vulnerability is a very important part of our society and if there is a certain stereotype that defies first, we should get rid of it. All in all, we learned many important lessons about the world we live in today, the utopia we wanted to be in, and how we should get there.
Although this trip was certainly life-changing and worthwhile to us, it did not come without some highs and lows. Starting from Tuesday our marathon of working for 4 hours a day on a farm had commenced. For the first 2 days, we toiled and pulled weeds with minimal breaks and horrible allergies. We had never experienced such physical demands and just thinking about what was in store for us for the final day was frightening and anxiety peaking. Despite so much physical strain, this trip was filled with many fun-filled and bonding experiences. We stayed in a home all together for 3 and a ½ days. We cooked for each other and we cleaned for each other. We laughed together and we suffered together. We rejuvenated from physical strain by performing football, watching movies, and pranking until the early hours of the morning.
Cooking was fun, but it was hard and frustrating at times. Breakfast was pretty simple, it was just cereal, while dinner and lunch were delicious. Some of the delectable delights cooked up by us warriors included Macaroni & Cheese, Pasta, Tostadas, and much more. The hard part was cleaning, where we had to sweep, mop, wipe the floors, clean the dishes, and much more. For all of us cleaning the dishes was something we thought was the hardest and was very difficult for us to do.
One key lesson that all of us came back home with was to never judge a book by its cover. When we arrived at the house, all of us were disgusted at how it looked. Some in our group were under the impression that the housing location was a joke! The house looked completely run down. However, when we went inside, we found out that it wasn’t bad at all and was actually visually appealing. We also thought the farm was going to be extremely exigent, which it was at a few points during the four days, but it wasn’t as terrible as we thought it was going to be. All in all, we had learned many life lessons, we had an unforgettable time throughout the entire experience, and were able to bond as a tribe.
By:
Writers- Pruthviraj Chavda, Janak Panchal, and Nirmal Shah
Editors- Sai Sidharth Kanyaboena, Paavan Purani
Layout Designers- Janak Panchal and Atharva Sheth
Interviewers- Sohum Babaria, Aryan Shah, Yatharth Patel