[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_blurb title=”Katie Lynch” _builder_version=”4.3.1″ body_font=”||on||||||” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”15px|15px|15px|15px” hover_enabled=”0″ border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” border_width_all=”1px” border_color_all=”#0a0889″ border_radii_image=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” border_width_all_image=”1px” border_color_all_image=”#0b2ec6″ box_shadow_style=”preset5″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(12,113,195,0.3)” box_shadow_style_image=”preset5″ box_shadow_color_image=”rgba(12,113,195,0.3)”]<\/p>\n
Interact Student, ROMS Liaison<\/p>\n
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Today, my group spent our time working at the camp. More specifically, we worked around the small pond in back, using a scythe to help control the overgrown plants that surrounded the water\u2019s edge. It was arduous work, but the serenity of our surroundings, and the good company we kept were more than enough to keep ourselves motivated and working.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” column_structure=”1_3,2_3″][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/orient.jpg” align_tablet=”center” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.3.1″ hover_enabled=”0″ always_center_on_mobile=”on”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/crotty1.jpeg” align_tablet=”center” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.3.1″ hover_enabled=”0″ always_center_on_mobile=”on”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.3.1″ hover_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n As we neared the completion point of our tasks for the day, we were joined by a man named Robert, who is one of the key people helping to get the camp back up and running. He noticed what we had been working on, and began to read us a poem by Robert Frost, entitled \u201cMowing\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c\u2018There was never a sound beside the wood but one, and that was my long scythe whispering to the ground. What was it whispered? I knew not well myself,\u2019\u201d Robert began.<\/span><\/p>\n When the poem was finished, he looked up at the four of us, and asked, \u201cWhat do you think the scythe whispered to the ground?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Knowing this was my honest answer, I responded that I didn\u2019t know. Robert smiled, and said he didn\u2019t either.<\/span><\/p>\n It seemed like a moment straight out of a movie, dramatic pauses and all. And as Robert walked away, preoccupied by some other task, I couldn\u2019t get what he had said to us out of my head. What<\/span> had <\/span><\/i>the scythe whispered to the ground?<\/span><\/p>\n Lilli and I mulled it over for a while, analyzing the meaning and metaphors interwoven within Robert\u2019s question. Eventually, we came to a consensus that this question could be rephrased in a way that might have been easier for us to understand: What was it that made the long days of laborious work withstood during Alternative February Break more appealing to us than the long days of mental \u201clabor\u201d that we endured at school?<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.3.1″ hover_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n The answer was simple, and it came to us almost immediately. While this was not a question that we had necessarily thought about before, the concept was not a difficult one to grasp. It was merely a matter of perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n Lilli and I agreed that quite often, it\u2019s difficult to comprehend what we work towards in school. Doing well on a test or turning in a hefty project may render a feeling of immense satisfaction, yet this is short-lived; there is always something more. Another grade, another school, another degree. At times, the system can seem never-ending. Not to say that school is unimportant to us, or that we don\u2019t have major goals for our future, but we both recognized that it can be very difficult for school to seem like a rewarding experience, especially in the short-term.<\/span><\/p>\n The work we have done thus far on Alt Feb, as well as what we experienced last year, was completely different. This experience is genuine and real, and every day it is easy to understand why we work, why we sacrifice what we do in order to go tear down a wall, or chip off old paint from a house. We do this because we know the work we do makes a difference, and we never need to question this. The cars honking at us and the people waving are more than enough to fully realize the impact we are making on the city and people of Trenton, North Carolina.<\/span><\/p>\n I used the word \u201crewarding\u201d to encompass the Alt Feb experience. On the one hand, the work we do helps others, plain and simple. We give them reasons to keep hope, and the means to make a change. And on the other hand, the work we do gives ourselves a chance to find ourselves, and understand life a little bit more. This could be something as simple as understanding an old poem as it pertains to our current situation. But it also gives us a reason to come back, and instills in us the drive to go out into the world, and do as much good as we possibly can do.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” column_structure=”1_3,1_3,1_3″][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/sep1.jpg” align_tablet=”center” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.3.1″ hover_enabled=”0″ always_center_on_mobile=”on”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/playtime.jpeg” align_tablet=”center” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.3.1″ hover_enabled=”0″ always_center_on_mobile=”on”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/taylor20.jpeg” align_tablet=”center” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” admin_label=”23″ _builder_version=”4.3.1″ hover_enabled=”0″ always_center_on_mobile=”on”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Katie Lynch meets a poem and has a epiphany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[91,134],"tags":[8,137,136,135],"class_list":["post-17912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-altfeb","category-new-bern","tag-altfeb","tag-frost","tag-nc","tag-perspective"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/playtime.jpeg?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ljKt-4EU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17912"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17924,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17912\/revisions\/17924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/interact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}