Jen Yokoyama
Post 4

Experience Makes a Person Grow

     As human beings, we learn more about us and the world around us as we grow up and begin to accept more and more individual responsibility.  We learn about what differentiates some from others, and a lot of the time, that difference is the hard work and effort some put in their lives that others may have not.

     Growing up on a coffee farm in Kona, from a young age, I learned the value of hard work and what it really means to work for the benefit of others, not just for yourself.  I guess you could say that my "intellectual adventure" isn't just one specific instance, but many small moments that combine into one big learning lesson.

     Picking coffee definitely wasn't fun by anyone's standards.  The farm was "split" into two different areas, and neither one was especially nice: go to one side and you will end up working in the blazing sun for hours, or go to the other side and be bitten by a swarm of mosquitoes who breed in the river next to the property.  But, in the end, all of those menial conditions are irrelevant compared to the overall experience of coffee picking.  By picking coffee, I helped out the family.  It was a group effort, and although the "reward" of the work may not have been given to me individually, this was a part of how my family earns money, so we all benefited.  Working on the farm wasn't easy either, so at an early age, I quickly learned what the value of hard work is, and the rewards making a good effort can bring.  My "intellectual experience" wasn't one that would normally pop up in someone's mind, but it taught me a lesson more valuable than anything in school can ever teach me.