The End. :) (Blog #8)

Summer 2010 is officially coming to a close. I've had some amazing experiences throughout these past few months, but to be perfectly honest, I'm looking forward to school. I know this year won't be easy by any stretch of the imagination, yet I still can't wait for it to start. Absolutely crazy, I know. As long as we all remain cautiously optimistic, I'm sure this year won't stink too bad. :)

Without a further ado, its time to wrap up my summer and bring this project full circle!

At first, comparing Kingsolver's project of living a "year of food life" to one like my own seems about as simple as walking up Mount Everest backwards. How can one possibly find something in common between growing vegetables and playing music? Once you look deeper, the commonalities are actually quite abundant.

Kingsolver and I both chose projects that we felt a personal connection to. She was passionate about growing her own food, so she took that a step farther and lived only off of the food that she or her neighbors raised. I'm passionate about music, so making this summer's project about it was an easy decision to make. Kingsolver wanted to share her project of living off of the land with others to encourage a greater respect of the food we eat. I, on the other hand, made my project about my own personal growth in the areas of playing viola and guitar. Though our means and motives differed, the heart of our projects was still about something we cherished.

Kingsolver spent every day finding ways to make the best of a year without a supermarket, and she wasn't just successful, she triumphed. The worldwide impact that her project made proved Kingsolver to be nothing short of a master of eco-logic in the area of food. My project was not done everyday and only had a span of a little over three months, and the largest favorable outcome of my project was playing the viola and guitar more than I ever had over the course of a summer. Kingsolver and I still found fulfilment from our projects, regardless of how great or small it was.

Kingsolver and I both met road bumps throughout the course of our projects. Having to wait for asparagus in late March made starting Kingsolver's venture difficult, and finding locally raised food while on vacation proved to be rather tricky. I found that I had bitten off more than I could chew in terms of what the original plan for my project was, so I had to alter it accordingly. Regardless, Kingsolver and I both met our obstacles head on. We each found ways to overcome our problems and come out successful in the end.

Enjoy your last few days of summer, everyone! :D

~Elyse Komarzec~

"Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember, that's where you will find success."
- Thomas J. Watson