An Action Filled Day

Today, I spent yet another day at the beach. This time however, I didn’t have to deal with the hassle of public transportation or massive amounts of red algae. Jackie picked all of us up in her giant white van and we headed to an absolutely beautiful beach with white sand and and blue water. It couldn’t have been more relaxing.

By the time we arrived, colorful beach umbrellas already covered most of the sandy area. We found one of the few empty spaces and laid out our small, white shower towels.  Like yesterday, most of us immediately ran into the water. Despite the fact that water was the same temperature as the day before, I was still surprised by its warmth. My feet didn’t immediately turn numb and my body didn’t freeze. It was a huge improvement from Northern California.

After about 30 minutes, we got out of the water and started to work on our homework. I was able to complete my reading assignments, so thankfully I don’t have to worry about staying up too late tonight. After reading, I started to think about ways to successfully execute my action plan. I hope to start a community garden at El Cerrito High and educate students about the importance of healthy eating. Hopefully the school or a local homeless shelter can utilize the harvest and feed hungry people healthy food. I also started to work on my newspaper presentation. On Tuesday, I have to present an article to the class and explain its relation to current woman rights. I chose an article describing recent political moves made by Republicans that are detrimental to the standing of women in society.

After a few hours and quite a large dent in my workload, it was time to leave. We piled into the van and made our way back to Brown. Once we arrived back, I had just enough time to take a shower and do laundry before leaving for dinner and, after that, community time. During community time, we discussed our action plans. A panel of RAs who had gone through this process described to us what to expect. Each of them chose to address large issues in their community and therefore needed a lot of outside support. They each became frustrated at some point, but in the end they realized that as long as they were making a positive difference in their community they were fulfilling at least some part of their goal. From this discussion, I was able to take away that the action plan alone isn’t really worth anything. Only if one is able to take that plan, or really any plan promoting positive change, and mold it to fit in with their community then it actually means something. I now realize that even if my current plan doesn’t work, I will still have the power to develop an even better plan and implement that into my community.