Stories from Spaces

27/07/17 - It’s already 12:46 AM (EST).  I just finished writing my essay for the internship and all of a sudden I found myself contemplating on many things. I realized we have just reached the moment we almost do not want to happen – that we are about to go home and part ways! With this one final blog, I wanted to share a slice of the packed experiences I had with the amazing people with me on this wonderful journey.

The Bus Boys book store section - Poetry and Open Mic

Around 9 PM of Wednesday, we had our Bible study (and dinner) in this so-called Bus Boys and Restaurant and Book Store. It is a cool place with an astonishing ambiance and captivating concepts of poetry and literature. Good thing I intentionally did not bring much of my remaining bucks or else I would have ended up buying at least 2 books!

And so we dined and shared what we have in mind on the things we see in ourselves that are changing, beautiful experiences and joyful moments on this internship, over a cup of tea! Through this space I ended up realizing the value of such conversations and I indeed feel comfortable with it. I feel in my heart that these spaces that we enter and share together become avenues for us to share our emotions, pains, joys and excitements. In these places we’ve been, I came to know my fellow interns (and our mentors) by heart. I listened to their passions and joys and I am inspired to hear their wonderful stories.

Our last Bible Study together

I am very happy to have met them in my life – fellow interns who ended up to be my friends. To name them: Engoma, from Kansas City (originally from Congo), who was basically my “tag team mate” on the many things we do, during funny moments, eating food and doing household chores together; Khary, from the “Real” Chicago as he claimed, a young man whom I see a lot of potential through his humility and rich insights; Skye, from Oklahoma, whom I can always relate myself with my rock star passion, and a wonderful gal I am confident of sharing many things; Nura, from Chicago, a person full of wisdom and who radiates an energy to keep going and ignites me to delve into deep conversations whenever we had a chance to share what we think; Iris, from South Carolina, who always makes me smile for her laughter and at the same time makes me humble for her rich ideas and realizations; Julliane, from Guam (originally form the Philippines), who from the group was my Kodak buddy and the person I’m  glad to share my experiences of being in  relationships; Jasna, a fellow Filipino, who always has something to say on the other side of the coin, and with whom I ended up agreeing to disagree and learned to appreciate things seen from different perspectives; Kendal from North Carolina, whom I will always appreciate for his passion, progressiveness, rich ideas and humbling efforts for us to connect together as a team; and Katie, one of our mentors, who always inspires us to keep going and who motivated me to be fired up all the time!

From these intents of togetherness, we delve deeper and create strong bonds. I pray that as we go from place to place, and even when we go back to our respective places of solace from this long journey, may we always find ourselves engrossed in wonderful experiences in the spaces we create just like what we have realized in our togetherness. May we always see one another in each other’s shoes and be one in spirit. May we always acknowledge diversity but appreciate harmony even from differences. May we always dare to listen and speak. And when we speak, may we always speak love. May the spaces we create be avenues to generate wonderful stories!

Kevin John A. Maddela
EYA Intern, Summer 2017
National Religious Partnership for the Environment
Blog #8