In 2008 I graduated from the College of Wooster, gleefully took a break from academia, got a job working at the local golf course, earned enough money to buy a plane ticket to Ecuador, and spent eight months taking Spanish, working on farms, and traveling to the most beautiful and sacred areas that I have ever known in my life, came home, took an internship in Washington on a small organic farm, became immersed with an American, rural lifestyle completely different from my own, and then returned to my place of birth, Hopkins MN. My journey has at times seemed disconnected and difficult, but looking back from my reflective vantage point, I can see a journey characterized both by chance/accident and continuity/forward movement–it is a journey that seems best understood through the lens of Henri Bergson’s seminal work, Creative Evolution.
At the College of Wooster, I majored in Political Science concentration on theory–my academic interests were theory, philosophy, constitutional law, public policy, and environmental policy/theory. Seemingly unconnected to sustainable, symbiotic farms, but in my senior year I became intrigued by the work of Wendell Berry as a strong counterpoint to the anarchistic voice of Guy Debord. My Senior Thesis: Garden’s and Revolutions was a study of how we can render the world differently without using overt and authoritarian means, and although not the primary focus, small, symbiotic farms seemed to provide a powerful narrative to the story.
Besides theory and philosophy I focused on public policy in the environmental arena, and although my work with Food and Water Watch dealt with environmental abuse from conventional farms and my involvement with Greenhouse revolved around food issues, I never really saw myself as working on farms or the importance of farming. I was mainly concerned with the public policy aspect, and pursued this with American University Washington Semester; and through Moot Court and constitutional law.
To this day, I am not sure what drew me to Rio Muchacho, but at that farm, the two main farmers, Dario and Nicola impressed upon qualities that took an almost spiritual quality and have changed the way that I view myself and view the world around me. After meeting them, and after learning 
how do such things as plant corn in the indigenous manner, on land that had been cultivated, planted, and harvested using the same method for 1000s of years, connected me to a world that I had never been connected to before.
This type of experience continued all throughout the rest of my journeys through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Boliva–meeting member of indigenous communities, living in their houses, experiences the cultures, the connection to the land, seas, and even celestial bodies woke up something in me, that I intend to cultivate the rest of my life. After these experiences I knew that I wanted to work on a small farm in the United States, and it was just as I was setting off for a 9-day hike in the Huayhuash mountains that I cemented my plans to work with Steve and Cecelia at Let Us Farm.
That trip was in part a culmination of the knowledge and more importantly the wisdom that I had been accumulating to that point. The scenery was indescribable—unbelievable mountain vistas and glacier lakes popped out from behind the heavy cloud and rain cover that blocked them most of the day. The paths were pristine and we saw no other tourists; it was rainy season and everything was to say the least wet. My group of three was led by an indigenous guide, Segundino, who imparted upon us the sacred nature of these mountains while explaining the medicinal uses of the plants found at the high alpine passes, and the difficulty of living in such places and the complicated politics that occurs even among such breathtaking and spiritual areas.
As to working on the farm with Steve, Cecelia, the other interns, and some of the amazing locals who helped out time time, I can’t say enough. But I can say this: small farms are viable alternatives to our current system of agriculture—they can promote biodiversity, grow lots of nutritious and gorgeous produce, and yes the can turn a respectable profit. I am very grateful for Steve and Cecelia taking me in and passing on these life sustaining skills that are being forgotten in the “modern” world.
My season of farming ended in the Cascade mountain range, initially in Okanagon where I saw North American vistas that rivaled any I experienced in South America, and then finally in Yakima at the Tilth Producers conference, where I learned about the feasibility of symbiotic farming–farming that combines animals, vegetables, grains, and fruits onto the same basic land to take advantages of the various inputs and outputs of a variety of farm goods.
Where I am now, well I am not quite sure. But I know that the wisdom from these symbiotic, spiritual farms that I have been experiencing since South America and had been heading towards throughout college will help guide my future. And I don’t intend on forsaking my postmodern roots and stating that farming is some form of telos for me, it is not a point, but a journey, and one that I will keep on walking.