Final Reflection - My Journey

I really enjoyed working on this project. My biggest takeaway was with the insights the fieldwork gave me. I live in the area that I did my fieldwork in, but I never realized how much I didn’t know or understand simply because I never took the time to just observe, explore, and meet new people.

Another way that this project impacted me is it helped me with my mental health. I’ve been dealing with Depression for the past couple of years. However, going out every week to a different location and gaining confidence with speaking to complete strangers has put me out of some of my funk. Before this course, I just felt like a student who worked. Now, I really do see myself as a leader of my community.

This project empowered me. I never knew that I had the power to do so much for my community. I spend so much time complaining about the traffic in suburban cities like Marietta and the unsafe environment of places in Atlanta like Georgia State University, but what did I do about it? Nothing. Because I felt like it was the mayor’s job or maybe it was the governor's job. This project showed me that leadership isn’t just a title or a role. Anyone can be a leader and anyone can help shape a community for the greater good, even a busy student-worker like me.

Unfortunately, timing was not in my favor. My workload at work increased dramatically. Then, just last week, I caught the flu. Even through all of that, I made an effort to go out, observe my surroundings, and speak with people in my community. For instance, I was near the Silver Comet Trail one day when I was sick. I grabbed my mask, wore some sneakers, took pictures of the area and recorded what I observed. Like on of my fellow community members told me, “doing something good for the community doesn’t need to be time-consuming or take a lot of effort. It can literally be something as small as saying good morning to your neighbors every day or talking to a homeless person and sharing your food with them”. Hope has to start somewhere. We don’t need to give people “too good to be true” hope or false hope, just something small and real enough that it truly makes a difference.

I’ve really admired Boston and how well the city-dwellers there have made their city so livable. My immediate reaction was to leave Marietta and find an excuse to live in Boston. However, after completing this project, I’ve opened my eyes to realize that I can turn Marietta into a Boston of sorts. I don’t need to live in Boston to enjoy aspects of Boston. I just need to create spaces here in Marietta that feel as though I am living in Boston.

Thank you so much for this opportunity, Professor Thompson. I look forward to how I continue to be a CityLab leader in the future.