Caroline L

media type="custom" key="7575579" Caroline 11-17-10 Homeroom 309

Seedfolk's Final Raft

Sandy
I sat in the bus as the Cleveland Airport faded away into the mist. It was over. I was going to have to train more, work harder, eat right and so much more. But I guess that's the life you live when you're a young female Olympic gymnast for the U.S Olympic Team. This wasn't always the life I had lived. I lived in my home country, Germany. When I was discovered I was forced to leave Germany to help support my family back home. I was twenty six and already making my own living and living alone. Gymnastics was my life. Until the bus drove by the garden. The Gibb Street Garden that is. I returned there one day, hoping to find someone like me to talk to. No one. Everyone was absorbed in there work. So I decided to to plant something to see what living in that kind of community was like. I planted red strawberries to remind me of home. My younger sister had loved strawberries. As I walked to the garden each day, I realized that this beautiful garden was in the middle of some rough and vacant areas. Walking there one day, I met a young pregnant girl. Her name was Maricela. She didn't seem to want to talk so it was hard to get her attention.When I tried to be friendly she was skeptical and hesitant to trust me. I had to show her that I was genuinely being nice. So I thought of a plan.

I would show Maricela increasing acts of kindness. I helped her carry tools and water, I gave her some of my strawberries, (which were in full bloom) and I gave her a few tips on her garden. She didn't really seem to care about the tips or the garden at all. Maricela groaned and mumbled while working all the time. My last act was going to have to be huge. But what would she appreciate?

I was going to give her back some youth and show her a good time. I called to her while she was walking ahead of me and for the first time she stopped. I asked Maricela to lunch and excepted a "No thank you. Or "I can't." But instead she just replied sure. We walked down to a nice restaurant a couple of blocks away. You may think: that's your good time? But I wasn't done yet. At the end during desert I asked if she wanted to come to a party that my friend was having to watch the Germany vs. Spain World Cup game. She once again said sure and I got her address to pick her up for the party. When I picked her up a few days later, I thought the Gibb Street Garden is so much more than just a garden. It introduces you to people and things you may have never experienced if you hadn't joined the garden and reminds you of important things in life like doing different things, having fun and meeting new people and friends.