NY2NO

The definition of education is: 'the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgement, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.' But when we think of education, the majority of the population tends to associate it with the image of school. On this particular NY2NO trip, I was shown that a huge portion of our teachings originate from what we take from our personal experiences, as well as what we learn from the experiences of others.

Coming into this experience, I expected to potentially reconstruct houses and work in gardens in areas of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and leave knowing that I contributed to helping the community. I never could have prepared myself to receive an education and knowledge so unconventional and disparate that it could only have been acquired on this trip, and not in a classroom.

Originating from the suburbs, my entire education has consisted of teachings by people of the same kind- others generally of the same race, financial position, educational level, etc., who were also raised in the suburbs. I'd never been exposed to much diversity in my community, and was constantly subjected into an environment where most aspects of people's lives were identical to mine. I hadn't anticipated a colossal portion of this trip would relate to learning so much solely because of the diversity of the group. This type of education was all about sharing experiences, and discussing very real, uncomfortable, and controversial topics relating to not only New Orleans, but the everyday life relating to people in general-- the topics that are almost taboo for teachers in schools to even touch on.

In addition, there was evidently manual labor involved; we helped Our School at Blair Grocery manage their urban farm. The difference about this trip was that we didn't travel to the Lower 9th Ward here to exclusively mow lawns and then leave. Aside from the manual labor, we had group discussions each day and night to help us recognize exactly how our work was benefiting the community, and the specific problems we were empowered to slowly work towards fixing. Just as gardeners pull the weed by the root in order to keep it from re-growing, we work together to understand the root of the problems facing this community (financial, educational, etc.). We worked towards patching these problems, and discussed how to work towards preventing these issues from occurring again. Although New Orleans is a distant and foreign community, the difficulties and obstacles it faces (although the severity may be greater) are similar to those in other states-- such as those in my own, personal state of New Jersey. Because of this, I had a greater connection and a greater motivation participate in the movement for the progression of New Orleans.

There is an endless amount that I could write about this trip, but to summarize certain important aspects, I took so much away from it as a person. I learned such an ample amount-- information wise, and intellectually as a person. This trip has allowed me to come to terms with reality and realize a lot of things about the world, about myself, about others, and about the relationship between the three. I feel that from this trip I have become significantly more mature, and have grown as a person. I plan on returning in the future so I can continue this journey, continue this movement, and sustain the drive that so many youth and adult volunteers have exerted towards this cause.

Kristin Skelton