Four weeks. That's how long it took for a girl to go from dreaming of the city life to falling in love with the art of gardening. During the course of an internship, I worked with not only other coworkers, but I lived with villagers with special needs. I had known that I would learn a great deal about communication and living with people who have disorders; however, I did not know that I would be taken out of my comfort zone and given a whole new perspective. Every day for at least four hours, I worked in the village garden, where they had about fifteen acres of land that was used to feed more than 300 people every day for every meal. I learned about gardening and the hard work that must be presented in order to receive positive results. I learned about team work and how important it is to have an encouraging group of people to work with. Most importantly, I learned eleven life lessons from the entire process of gardening, which I can now apply as I walk out of the fields this Saturday. I will forever remember my time in the heat because I grew as an individual more in those 28 days than I could have possibly imagined.

1. You have to be wake up ready to do any tedious/annoying task.

From hoeing for three straight hours to cleaning garlic, one never knows what will be needed that day. Sometimes it feels like no one these days wants to do the dreadful jobs, but without someone doing the little tasks, the product will cease to exist.

2. You have to have a big vision.

Without a dream in the garden, one can easily get stuck doing menial jobs. Hard work is needed in order to achieve something great; though, if a big dream does not exist, there is nothing to work towards. In life, it is the same way because if a person does not hold a vision of their goals, he/she will become stuck with no direction of what to work for.

3. You have to plant the seeds, and then you have to plant the plants.

For those of you have ever experienced the process of gardening, you know that you must go out and buy some seeds, plant them in soil, wait for them to begin their growth, and then take them out to grow in the fields. This progression includes a significant amount of physical work. Bending, lifting, digging, and squatting all must occur. How is this a lesson for life? We must go out and buy the seeds to new experiences. Once we grasp the opportunities, we must work as hard as we can to see the results.

4. You have to have patience.

This one is pretty obvious. No matter how much we want to, we are not able to force a seed to grow much faster. You may not have crops ready by the scheduled time, and you may not be done with the day's work by the end of a shift. Nonetheless, the jobs must get done with care. In the days of my life, I know that patience will be key because not everything will be predictable. I think about this when I send a text message or email and it takes wayyyy too long for me to receive a reply!

5. You have to learn to deal with things that are completely out of your control.

I learned this one on the very first day. Dressed in what I thought would be decent for the garden, I wore old sneakers. Only 45 minutes into the work day, an enormous storm hit with strong winds and a heavy pour. There I was, drenched, with wet socks and sneakers, and standing in front of a line of tomatoes that had fallen over from the wind. Sometimes patience works with situations, but sometimes we are forced to learn new skills in order to work past the unexpected events.

6. You have to clean up after yourself.

I have always loved to clean. My friends know I'm weird when it comes to this, but now I know that it is actually important to clean even when it's not fun. You don't HAVE to do this. If you don't, just be ready suffer the consequences. In the garden, you have to clean up the space around the crops or they have no space to grow. When you come home, you have to shower and keep your room clean or diseases will appear in minutes. To me, mess is stress, and tidying up might just be the small act that can help reach the actual goal much easier.

7. If you don't do the work, you don't have anything to eat.

Seriously. Harvesting certain crops, such as beets and carrots, can be a real pain. In that heat, all I wanted was to sleep in my room, but pick-up day was near and that meant many people were counting on all the vegetables to be ready for them. Without the work put in, villagers would not be able to prepare dinner for their houses. Even if you don't work in a garden, this lesson still applies. You must work hard at whatever career path you choose because without the hard work, you will not have anything to eat.

8. It is much harder to complete the job alone.

If you must, you can most definitely do it by yourself. After four weeks, I have learned that it's much more pleasant if you can do it with others. I was very lucky to work with a group of people who laughed through the heat. They were friendly, supportive and taught me each new skill with a motivating attitude. Some life goals may be needed to complete alone; however, there will be many times where it feels much better to have some help around you.

9. It is important to be thankful.

This lesson goes hand in hand with the last one. As much as help in the garden feels nice, one must be grateful for the extra hands. You could be an unappreciative gardener or a person going through life, but the world is full of miracles that need to be acknowledged.

10. Whether you want to or not, sometimes, you have to let things go.

I learned this the hard way every time I harvested beets, onions, carrots, etc... So many times, you would find one section of crops that just were slightly bad so you couldn't put them in the market. Also, weeds, branches, animals... you've got to let some things go. Gardening í a process ò selecting, making hard decisions and letting go sometimes. The concept of making room for new things by letting go old ones was shown to me loud and clear during this internship.

11. You have to learn to love.

After all of the hot days in the fields, I have mostly learned that it's all about love. Gardening cannot be measured in money, amounts, or time. The wonderful people I met at the village all did it for love. The day that I was given the honor to manage the market, I saw the folks come in and out to pick up their vegetables; consequently, I was able to see that the love that was put into the work by the gardeners resulted in the delicious food that was set out. By taking all of the market food home to their families and friends, they were passing around that same love. After we are all gone, love will be the thing that can last a long time.