Reflective Post
This service internship class to New Orleans was another experience. I don’t say that to diminish it’s effect more that another has come and gone and I am a changed person because of it. I was introduced to this class when the famous Dr. A came into my History of Economics of North America class and with so much passion and enthusiasm he sold me on the class. I always wanted to go to New Orleans but they way in which Dr. A is so passionate about everything New Orleans, from the food, the culture, the environmental impact, to the rich history it inspired me to want to be apart of that experience. As everyone knows I’m not an ESRM or biology major but instead a business and economics so for me this was a “for fun” class but more for me to broaden my horizons and view this amazing place from a completely different vantage point than the business perspective.
It’s very different going from the profit side to the labor side of things. I view myself as a hard worker but the time we spent in New Orleans challenged me in that aspect and I know for myself that the work we did is good in small doses but definitely not for a career. I respect my professors and the students I went with that do wish to pursue this kind of work for their careers all that much more because again I couldn’t do it all the time. I think it’s also important for people of my major to realize how hard others work because it will most likely be us who hire others to do work and we need to have an understanding of what goes into a job. So instead of just viewing things as “just business” or by the numbers and we can see the blood, sweat, tears and in this case mosquito bites goes into the finished product.
Though this was a “cheap” way to see New Orleans I paid with those blood, sweat, tears and mosquito bites and I’m very happy I did. It made this experience so much more worth it and I gained a small family which is priceless. Wherever my fellow students end up I wish them the absolute best. Dr. A is known for talking, a lot, but I respect how much passion and energy he puts into everything and his last speech that he left us with really inspired me. Though politics are scary at the moment (a mad man is the front runner for the Republican party) Dr. A said we have to stay connected and that we can’t let that negativity win. We are the agents for change and we have to stay connect and not become bitter, against all odds. Though we may be poor college students at the moment we have the luxury to attend college and afford amazing experiences such as NOLA so in fact compared to most of the world we actually are apart of the 1%. With that comes power and responsibility and we need to use this power for the better and change the world for the good. As much bad as there is in this world there is good and more importantly hope. Even in the darkest room light can get in even if it’s only a sliver and though our efforts in New Orleans maybe miniscule I hope that we will see the much needed change that needs to happen in our lifetime.
With that I leave pictures of my NOLA family:
Auf Wiedersehen NOLA
