Lucas Salaberry, Grade 12
UWCRBC
I did not choose RBC, I chose the 500-year-old garden, the black forest, and the sustainability focus. These three pillars shaped how I decided to be involved in campus because these were what initially drew me to it. Growing up in Houston, TX USA I never was around any greenery, in fact, while some places are known for their mountains, Houston is known for their highways (the widest in the world). Because of this, I was always fascinated with the idea of being able to slip away into the woods or among the flowers in a garden, and being at RBC allowed me to do just that.
Naturally, I chose my activities to be gardening, hiking and helping out with Sustainability education days. I made experiencing all that I had wanted to and couldn’t my top priority no matter what. What I wanted to get out of these activities initially was to check them off my bucket list because I did not know if I really enjoyed them, but I wanted to try them out nonetheless.
This goal became clouded when I actually started because instead of even learning all about the cycle of exactly why and when plants are sown and get harvested, I learned all about the people around me and the power of dad jokes. The most memorable session was not even a day we were gardening, it was when we spent the entire time fixing the axes, shovels, and rakes in the old hydroelectric plant. We were all in the zone and naturally rotated positions from hammering a new end piece into a handle, taking off broken pieces, and finding matching ones. The vibrations from the wood slab we worked on reverberated just like the laughter filling the room.
The cherry on top was having bread with jams and butter while we sat alongside the volunteers from all across the city. This was special though, as we were the only group to experience this because of covid and scheduling. The language barrier having German speakers constantly translate was an easy hurdle to jump to learn about special hideouts at the top of the hill and in the bee house and the stories about practicing medicinal gardening to cure cancer. We got all the insider information because these volunteers have been around long before the school ever has. I doubted and underestimated how much I could have learned and the scope because it is just “planting onions and removing weeds”. Never again.
We, the members of the Friday Garden CAS, got so close that shoveling horse shit together in the rain which later turned into sheets of snow was the norm. This was all the while making jokes and puns about shit that wasn’t so shitty, oh shit I’m doing it again. There was always a moment when we stepped away from the work and that day was visiting the iconic head gardener Eva’s old house with their friendly sheep and cleaning off the shit from our boots in a tranquil nearby stream. These days were the longest, but most memorable moments of my UWC experience and although they didn’t fulfill my initial expectations, they were blown out of the water.
Image Courtesy: https://www.uwcrobertboschcollege.de/learning/experiential-learning/
Naturally, I chose my activities to be gardening, hiking and helping out with Sustainability education days. I made experiencing all that I had wanted to and couldn’t my top priority no matter what. What I wanted to get out of these activities initially was to check them off my bucket list because I did not know if I really enjoyed them, but I wanted to try them out nonetheless.
This goal became clouded when I actually started because instead of even learning all about the cycle of exactly why and when plants are sown and get harvested, I learned all about the people around me and the power of dad jokes. The most memorable session was not even a day we were gardening, it was when we spent the entire time fixing the axes, shovels, and rakes in the old hydroelectric plant. We were all in the zone and naturally rotated positions from hammering a new end piece into a handle, taking off broken pieces, and finding matching ones. The vibrations from the wood slab we worked on reverberated just like the laughter filling the room.
The cherry on top was having bread with jams and butter while we sat alongside the volunteers from all across the city. This was special though, as we were the only group to experience this because of covid and scheduling. The language barrier having German speakers constantly translate was an easy hurdle to jump to learn about special hideouts at the top of the hill and in the bee house and the stories about practicing medicinal gardening to cure cancer. We got all the insider information because these volunteers have been around long before the school ever has. I doubted and underestimated how much I could have learned and the scope because it is just “planting onions and removing weeds”. Never again.
We, the members of the Friday Garden CAS, got so close that shoveling horse shit together in the rain which later turned into sheets of snow was the norm. This was all the while making jokes and puns about shit that wasn’t so shitty, oh shit I’m doing it again. There was always a moment when we stepped away from the work and that day was visiting the iconic head gardener Eva’s old house with their friendly sheep and cleaning off the shit from our boots in a tranquil nearby stream. These days were the longest, but most memorable moments of my UWC experience and although they didn’t fulfill my initial expectations, they were blown out of the water.
Image Courtesy: https://www.uwcrobertboschcollege.de/learning/experiential-learning/
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