amandas and MADD

There are so many girls named Amanda here! I've known people named amanda before, but never so many. There's one other Amanda on my team, and we're still trying to figure out what to do with that, so that we aren't all confused all the time, because neither of us really wants to have a nickname. And, there's another Amanda in the group that i've been hanging out with recently. And there's at least one other Amanda on my floor... and 3 more that i've had conversations longer than 5 minutes with, and probably 10 or so more on campus. Why did they all have to take my name? It's not like my parents named me Laura or Lauren or Katy or Kate or Caitlin, those names that so many of my friends seem to have. I've never felt so unoriginal in regards to my name. And i think there's some Mandys too! Geez!

Today was great though. We finally did some actual work. It was Make a Difference Day, a national service movement to create community gardens and green spaces in cities across the country. I really enjoyed the place I was working. I know other people at the farm were doing things like breaking down dilapidated buildings and planting things and building things, all kinds of projects i'd have found much more interesting, but even painting and cleaning was nice after days of classrooms with no windows. I think i can enjoy any project that i can look at in the end and see that i've made an impact. The place i was working is called Soil Born Farm Urban Agriculture Project. It's a sustainable agriculture project. It's the first time i've really been exposed to things like this, i've always thought that it was just for the hippies and really environmental people, but i think that maybe these are projects i can get behind. Helps kids, lots of hard work, lots of being outside. And it was started by 2 people, including 1 former Americorps member.
I may have to look into spending more time at this place...
website, if you're curious (i haven't looked at it yet, but i will!): soilborn.org