by Colin W.

Legacy Farms Apprentice

With the summer beginning to wind down, my time at Legacy Farms is coming to a close. Most of the harvesting and growth on the farm is thanks to the mentors and apprentices Legacy Farms hired and coached this summer. It's been 8 weeks since I started working for Legacy, and to celebrate the end of the program I’m to take a look back at how I’ve grown as a person and as a writer.

At the start of this summer, I had a goal of landing my first job. I could’ve gotten a job during the school year but chose not to because I needed to focus on my studies, and because most places that were hiring (fast food) weren’t exactly to my liking. So when Legacy Farms reached out to me offering a unique position as a writer and garden apprentice, I was very interested. 

The job I was offered was a very unique one, in that it was something Legacy Farms hadn’t tried out yet. Once per week, I head out to Legacy Farms and work for two and a half hours tending to the garden. While doing this, I find a topic to write about and start gathering information on said topic. Then over the course of the week I draft, edit, revise, and finalize my article. Then after all my hard work and mentoring from staff members, my article is published.

Prior to being hired by Legacy Farms, I had plenty of experience with writing and journalism. In my sophomore year of high school I took an introductory class in journalism, and followed that up in my junior year by joining my school’s newspaper. Both of these classes did a good job of preparing me for this job, except for the lack of physical labor. I also focus a lot of my effort on writing, because it's something that I enjoy and it could be a possible career.

One thing I really struggled with prior to Legacy was interviewing people for newspaper articles. This had nothing to do with who I was interviewing or what I was interviewing them about, but instead my complete inability to talk to strangers. I think this is because I suffer from something I call “the imaginary audience,” which is a state where you think people are eagerly listening or watching you so they can make fun of you. So whenever I do something stupid I think a lot of people notice it, when in reality most people don’t care at all. This kind of thinking has made me become very reserved and aloof, and it also doesn’t help when I meet new people. When I had to interview people for the newspaper at school I ended up putting it off because I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. 

But then I got hired by Legacy Farms and that started to fade away. The fellow apprentices and staff members were kind and accommodating, so when I had to interview them, it wasn’t that stressful. This has allowed me to somewhat come out of my shell of social ineptitude and become more talkative. 

Before we conclude this summary, I’d like to touch on two of my favorite articles written this summer: My Heart Beets and Tango of the Tomatillo.

My Heart Beets is my favorite article because it was less of a task and more of an experience. That is to say, writing that article was a very personal endeavor.

Tango of the Tomatillo was a collaborative effort with another staff member, as a lot of the information I gathered for that article was directly through talking with her.

I’ve really enjoyed my time working for Legacy Farms this summer. I got to make some money, try new foods, learn about all sorts of fruits and veggies, and I even grew a bit as a person. I only have one more month to work for Legacy, but it feels like it's ending too soon.