7 Weeks in Amherst

I just finished my summer job today as a program assistant for Putney Student Travel at their Amherst Excel program. I spent seven weeks working with teachers and professionals who taught classes to and also led activities and lived with high school students. Beyond the value of the job experience, this summer has offered me incredible encouragement that I have found the right path.

Part of one of my favorite poems- The Structure of Suchness by Thich Nhat Hanh- has been running through my head for the past few weeks:

I know a bullet may strike
the heart of the little bird this morning,
the bird that is celebrating life with all its might.
The corn, the grass, the fragrance of the night,
together with the stars and the moon-
all of us are doing our best.
We are doing everything we can
to keep you alive.

Amherst was an intense experience every minute of each day and involved constant interactions with the same people all the time. I was afraid this would fray my nerves after a while, but quite the opposite happened. I found such compassion. I daily try to focus myself on not just understanding the world around me, but understanding why and how it works that way. Not just for others' struggles but for my own as well. There is another Thich Nhat Hanh quote that I just love: "Please call me by my true names...so I can see that my joy and pain are one." This phrase is wonderful! I felt that all summer, I have had these incredibly challenging experiences and sometimes they are joyful and sometimes they are painful. But both are experience, and experience makes us all wiser. I've had amazing adventures but life experience can only be gained one day at a time, and I am so so thankful for the life experience I gained this summer. Even my struggles make me feel in a way more human, more connected to the struggles of the people around me.

I feel like I've come out of this program a person of more substance and compassion, and I love the people who have made this possible. I sincerely hope I get to do this again next year and use everything I've learned. If only every seven weeks were as impacting as these have been...

I hope everyone is having an equally amazing summer!