The Same Berries from the Refugee Camp
By Anonymous
In our last few class sessions we touched upon the rat race that we find ourselves engulfed in, be it grades, job or other material things. I took some time off in my daily routine to reflect on this reality after reading some of the assigned reading materials, especially those written by other students.
I came to realize that I had moved myself away from many people in my life that I used to see, talk to, or interact with on a daily or weekly basis.
It started a few months after the pandemic wherein I lost some contact with my friends and extended family due to pandemic protocols and due to the fact that one of my immediate family members had deteriorating health and was taking immunosuppressive medicines. Even after restrictions were relaxed a bit, I limited going out mainly to getting groceries in bulk every two to four weeks. This grew into a vicious cycle of interacting with people from my social life to only a couple of times per year on the phone.
During this time I thought that I would be able to dedicate more time to my studies now that I did not spend time socializing. This did not have positive effects on my quality of life. Thinking back, I realize how I suffered by isolating myself from others. Although I had more time, I realized that I was more tired and wasted that extra time on YouTube and twitter doom scrolling. The positive energy and motivation that I used to give and receive from my social interaction was no longer there and therefore my academic standing did not improve the way I wanted it to.
Over the past year I have taken active steps to get out of this cycle and have reconnected with many of my friends. Moreover, I realize how I need to spend more time with my family and just be there in the moment i.e. not to be on my phone half the time or worrying about all kinds of deadlines, conversations, news, sports events, or other things when I am with them. This gives me a chance to better appreciate the time we spend together and have deeper and more meaningful conversations with my friends and family.
In our last class session, we went for a walk around the buildings and stumbled upon a garden that we had never seen before. As we were walking up the steps of this garden, I saw this specific type of berries that were half ripe (close to ripe) that immediately brought a smile to my face.
It reminded me of my childhood - of a better time, free from worries and filled with joy. My father had planted the same exact tree in our house in the refugee camp about 17 or 18 years ago. I watched that plant grow from a seed into a fruitful tree. It reminded me of how I loved watering the plants in our house and anxiously waited for 11AM to be able to water them on weekends. See in our refugee camp we had access to water only a couple of hours per day and people had to store it within those couple of hours in large buckets or containers.
I remember the days when the water pressure would be high enough, I would put my thumb to close the majority of the opening of the pipe so that the water would go further. I would tilt the pipe so that the opening would face the sky and to mimic as if it was raining. There is nothing that smells more pleasing than the scent of soil when it rains after a long time.
I used to pluck those berries before they were ripe because I enjoyed the sour-sweet taste when they were half ripe compared to the very sweet, ripened ones. I can still taste that sweet and sour taste of those berries when I think of it.
This makes me appreciate talking about rigidity in our class and how we need to step out of it, at least from time to time. That walk to the garden was not planned. In fact nobody in our class even knew that it existed, yet it brought such a beautiful memory to my mind. We never know how one interaction, one event, one unstructured walk that is outside of our rigid schedules may positively affect our lives and make us feel in a way we have not in a very long time!