Siempre
Verde has always held such a special place in my heart. Going into eighth
grade, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the lodge with a group of my
peers. The beauty of Ecuador had me hooked – the animal and plant life, the
landscapes, the clouds. But, the people made me feel most at home. Siempre
Verde is a place where people of different backgrounds can come together and
simply enjoy life together. Luckily, I got the opportunity to return to this
beautiful place as a tenth grader on the fall trip. The people that I met on
this trip will continue to shape my life for the better, and I am so grateful
to have had this opportunity.
Going into
the senior project assemblies as a younger student, I was always mesmerized by
the incredible passion that students had for a certain area of study – the
environment, film, ceramics, mechanics, etc. It took me a while to realize that
my passion within the broader category of service and leadership was Siempre
Verde. After speaking with Mr. Reynolds about projects pertaining to Siempre
Verde, we decided that a children’s book would be a great way to show the Lower
School children how special this place will be for them as future Middle and
Upper School students.
Although I
learned so much more about Siempre Verde from this project, my greatest
takeaways revolve around aspects of myself that I had not yet discovered in my
eighteen years on the planet. This was the first time in my life that I had a
whole month of time dedicated to a project that I self-designed. I learned that
it is actually incredibly difficult to keep yourself focused on a larger goal
with so many distractions. This month was particularly difficult for me because
I had to make many big decisions about my future for the next four years. These
obstacles that came in my life really made me question whether I would be able
to finish a project of this size. Luckily, I also learned throughout the
process that I am incredibly self-disciplined. Despite these hardships, I was
able to stick to a schedule and ultimately create a product of which I am truly
proud.
The senior
project experience also taught me a valuable lesson of following my own dreams
and goals. Although I am passionate about Siempre Verde, I learned very early
in the process that I am not much of a children’s book author. I thought that
the project would be easy enough to complete if I had a passion for Siempre
Verde; however, I soon found that sometimes the passion is not enough to drive
an individual. I have to love what I am doing to achieve an end goal, and I am
sure that there would have been many other ways to express my passion for
Siempre Verde apart from writing a children’s book.
I am so
glad that I participated in this program and cannot wait to see what the final
book looks like. I envision the feeling of flipping the glossy-pages over and
over to find my own words and collection of illustrations. Thank you so much to
my project advisors, Alex Reynolds and Angela Morris-Long. I cannot thank you
enough for your support over the past four years and specifically your time
spent with my project. I will never forget this experience or the aspects I
have learned about myself. The project motivates me to find my passion in
college and pursue it – no matter how unattainable it may seem. Thank you again
to everyone who followed my project. If you have any further questions, please
do not hesitate to contact me!
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how
close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas A. Edison
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