Cal pARI SLO: Get Out and Live Above

Yo, yo, yo. Yes, you are blessed on this fine Sunday afternoon. Enjoy my thoughts.

My major is Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration (RPTA), which involves a lot of service to this beautiful earth and all of it's inhabitants. Our department's motto is "Live. Protect. Explore." and this past week I got to experience a little bit of what this actually means. The first day of orientation I was struck with the awful (at the time) requirement of 1,000 hours of volunteer or work service related to RPTA for graduation. I could feel my stomach come up to my throat. How would that even be possible? Turns out, easier done than said. (Is that a thing?)

A class that I currently am enrolled in is RPTA 257 "Leadership and Diverse Groups." This class has been my favorite part of Cal Poly so far. Basically, it is centered around learning how to run programs and adapt your professional environment to those with disabilities and differences in sex/age/ethnicity than what you may be use to. For 2 hours a week, we have an activity that usually includes a speaker presentation and team-building exercises. ONE SECTION OF MY MIDTERM LAST WEEK WAS A GROUP OF PICTURES WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE IN MY CLASS AND YOU HAD TO FILL IN THEIR NAMES. Like, I'm serious y'all- this class is fun. Last week in our activity, we had two speakers, one who is visually impaired and one who is a member of the deaf community. It was amazing. They challenged every thing in this society that has ever told them they would never be good enough, never be able to succeed. Jokes on you society. Both graduated in the 2000's from Cal Poly. Both are striving and thriving. They talked about their disabilities not as a crutch, but an extension of who they are as a human being. They are infinitely a human being first, not a definition of a disability. I enjoyed getting to watch the first speaker sign her presentation and an interpreter relay the information to us. She rides horses and has three beautiful children. She's also a teacher at the local community college here in San Luis Obispo. The second speaker was humorous at best. He said "I'm not blind. I'm a middle aged man!" He performed an activity in class where several of my peers had to be blindfolded and try to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then walk it to someone else in the classroom. Needless to say, my PB&J was more of a PB sandwich.

Another requirement of this class requires 10 hours of community service with 3 respected agencies in the San Luis Obispo County. While I was not able to volunteer with Special Olympics at a Track and Field Practice on Saturday like I planned due to rain. I did volunteer at a wonderful agency Friday morning for four hours. This agency is called Growing Grounds Farm and Nursery. It's located about 15 minutes from the Cal Poly Campus and specializes in "Horticulture Therapy." Yes, you should google it. But anyways, Growing Grounds is a non-profit organization that is a member of the Transitions-Mental Health Association and employs adults with severe and persistent mental illnesses. It was raining most of my shift, but let me tell you, these people are AMAZING. For the first hour, we just "consolidated" the plants, which is basically reorganizing them and taking out the dead plants from their neat rows. After that, the entire population that was at the farm met in a circle for announcements, stretching, and a quick breathing mediation. Then everyone was put into small groups and assigned various tasks around the farm. I was paired with two Growing Grounds employees and one member from my class to ho weeds out of the three greenhouses and a large section of plants called "Pluto." This was done for nearly three hours and let me tell you, it's not easy work. I'm still sore. During this experience, one of the employees was very open with us. He told us about his struggle with alcohol and drugs and schizophrenia. He's been working at Growing Grounds for nearly seven months and he said it's the "best, most calming thing that's ever happened" to him. He had to be one of the funniest people I have ever met and boy was his laughter infectious. The second employee was very private during our first hour in the greenhouses. He often got frustrated if we were not doing it the way he thought it would be done, so I attempted to learn from his form and he thanked me for "my service and patience." He said "you didn't complain once, you just worked hard and focused hard. It's amazing." That comment alone could have kept me glowing with happiness all day, except for a conversation we had in the fields.

As we started raking out the weeds we feverishly pulled up from the ground, the man started to talk to us about his life. He deals with acute anxiety and depression and takes heavy medication daily for this. Aside from working at Growing Grounds, he also works in the City of San Luis Obispo with an agency supporting other people with mental illnesses. He meets with a case worker weekly and he told me a situation that happened the day previously that frustrated him. He went home and wasn't able to separate his frustration from work from his home life and the case worker said he should try breathing exercises, which only frustrated him more because as much as he wanted to breathe, he felt "he just couldn't." He gained increasingly quiet after sharing this information with me and several minutes later apologized if he hurt my feelings because he didn't want to scare me. I reassured him that I was very grateful he was able to share such personal information with me and feel comfortable talking to me- I told him I appreciated him and all the work he did. He replied with "you know it's just hard. It's hard to help people with mental illnesses when I have a mental illness myself. It's just so hard." And it hit me like a train. This man infinitely loved people, despite everything he has ever had to deal with, he still felt it in his heart to help others. He only wanted to make life easier for every one else. In that moment, I admired him so much.

I will never forget the experience I had at Growing Grounds with these two individuals. So what can you? Get involved. Get out and live above the stereotypes. Find a local organization and dedicated time to serving others, whether it's an hour or five. You never know, it could turn into a regular thing that you enjoy. I believe that everyone can have an eye opening experience like mine the past week. I believe with the right mentality and care, the world is an infinite place with endless possibilities with incredible people at all walks of life. And if you can't find an hour out of your week to donate your time (WHICH YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO JUST TURN OFF THE BACHELOR), then at the very least donate some money to an organization.

If there is anything you got from reading this blog, I hope it's that people are human beings first, regardless of age, sexuality, gender, disabilities, mental illnesses, color of their skin. You have the duty to respect them as a human being aside from your differences.

Lots of love,

Ari