Hi collegiettes! I am excited to tell y’all (I got a little Southern there, sorry) that I went on my first ever Alternative Spring Break! A group of people from NUin (which I will explain later, for anyone reading this who might not know) and I woke up at 3:30 a.m. the day Spring Break started and took a bus, a shuttle, and a connecting flight to Memphis, Tennessee. Our goal? To clean up as much garbage as we could along the great Mississippi River.
Crazy, you say? I sure thought so when my alarm went off before the crack of dawn.
But each and every one of us had a reason to go through the endeavor of waking up at an ungodly hour and getting on a bus with quasi-strangers to a foreign state to clean up garbage along a river.
I’ve always had “cleaning a river” on my bucket list. I remember as a child looking outside the car window and seeing styrofoam cups, bottles, and other pieces of trash strewn around the street. Disgusted and angry at people’s indifference towards the environment, I vowed to find an opportunity to pick up trash to make a positive, direct impact on the environment.
Years later, I unfortunately went through the pain of having to wear crutches for a whopping four months, which prevented me from completing a large portion of the service hours I had to do for my scholarship. So I decided, last minute, to go on Alternative Spring Break to compensate for the hours I lost.
As I read through the organizations I could apply to serve, I zeroed in on one particular organization–Living Lands & Waters in Memphis, Tennessee. It was in a place I’d never been before, it was cheaper than the trips abroad, it would compensate me at least 40 volunteering hours, and it was something I’d always dreamed of doing.
Finding an Alternative Spring Break really couldn’t have been easier.
At first, going to Tennessee with a bunch of strangers was uncomfortable. Particularly because this trip was made for people part of NUin, a program that selects people to go abroad their first semester of college to Greece, Australia, England, Ireland…and I was volunteering with the Civic Engagement Program (CEP), an entirely different initiative. Things got awkward occasionally (or at least I perceived they might have gotten awkward because I wasn’t in NUin like they all were), mainly because my shyness was blocking my ability to actually engage in proper conversation with anyone.
We visited Graceland (Elvis’ mansion), Sun Studio (where Elvis first recorded a song), and Beale Street (like the Bourbon Street of Memphis). Beale Street was bustling with people and the live music we saw was incredible! The band (whose name I forget) was funny, gregarious, and talented. The lead singer played the guitar amazingly behind his head and had great charisma. The group and I walked around and saw a few guys dancing in the middle of the street.
Then, for four days, about six hours each day, we’d clean up the garbage that piled up on the banks of the Mississippi River (or at least a few bodies of water that connect to it). We tirelessly grabbed all sorts of things–ropes, plastic bottles, glass bottles, stuffed animals, pillows, dolls, fridges, tires, basketballs, bowling balls, bowling pins–anything you can think of, we probably picked it up from the muddy banks of the Mississippi. The first day, it drizzled, making it cold and wet, but from then on, it was drier and warmer. We met really nice people from Monmouth University in Illinois and from Black Hills State University in South Dakota.
The LLW crew put music on through a large speaker on “the DJ boat,” making the experience of bending down and picking up various pieces of trash pleasant. The DJ boat played songs by everyone from Luke Bryan to Phish to Elvis…a wide variety of music that I will now incorporate into my musical tastes. My fellow Alternative Spring Breakers and I would dance to the music, which was really fun.
Speaking of the LLW crew, they were amazing. So friendly, funny, and inspiring. Even though they probably had to wake up at 8 a.m. every day to prepare for a new day of trash-picking, they were energetic and funny, which would pump us up. Chad, the leader, was funny and laid-back; Ashley, a crew member, was funny and kind; Nelson, another crew member, was sweet and engaging; and Mike “The Coach,” another crew member who is also an eighth-grade history teacher, would make a hilarious speech every day with music from Enya, AC/DC, and Irish rock bands. During lunchtime (which had amazing food, by the way–that pulled-pork sandwich was out of this world) they would show us videos of Chad on CNN Heroes (he was freaking named CNN Hero of the Year in 2013!) and he would awkwardly leave the room. What a modest dude.
The last day, Chad said some inspiring words that I brought to heart–he said he started the project about 17 years ago when he was fed up with the amount of garbage floating in the Mississippi River, an enormous source of water for many people. He set out, by himself, to pick up every single piece of trash, not because he was a good person, but because he had to do it if no one else would. He told us that we need to find our passions and that even one person with a passion to change something could propel others to join the cause, which builds momentum. Once we have a passion, he said, never let it burn out, because even one person’s passion can bring other people to help impact the world in a positive way.
I don’t exactly know what I will do to impact the Northeastern community or even the world. I’m already part of a campaign that proposes to raise the minimum wage for all of Northeastern’s campus workers, but I want to create a campaign. I want to start something. I think I want to de-stigmatize mental illness or at least create a network in which people with mental illness can freely express their thoughts and feelings. But all I know is that I will vow to make a difference–even if it’s just in my community.
And as for my fellow Alternative Spring Breakers, we’re going to stay in touch and we’re planning on hanging out in Boston together.
If you’re interested in making a direct impact on the environment, feeling good about yourself, and having fun, check out the LLW website at http://livinglandsandwaters.org!
A picture of the fantastic ribs we had the last night!!