It’s getting to be the end of the semester and we are all staring to feel it. We haven’t escaped from the pile of homework that generally starts growing around this time of the year. The difference: this homework is empowering. I’ve realized that I do understand what we have been learning this semester. I may be a bit fuzzy on some of the technical aspects, but the main ideas have been shared; they have been shared with me and I realize that I am ready to share it with others. For our permaculture design class, our final project is to create a sustainable, permaculture blueprint of either a dream we have had for a place to live, or a design for a sustainable community.

I started with a dream. For those of you who know me, have spent any time with me, or have listened to me talk about architecture, you will know that I think tree houses offer the most impressive standard of living-no matter what size, with or without electricity, the height or the materials with which it is constructed. I knew that a treehouse would be central in my design. From there, the project expanded to include a small house (the treehouse becoming an art studio), a greenhouse, a summer garden complete with a bathing garden in the center etc., and then it hit me. Is this really what I want to be doing? I don’t anticipate living on my own in an area where I will have enough room to incorporate all of these elements into a design. I can try, for the purpose of this project, to fit all of my ideas into the small 36.54 meters by 48.92 meters by 29.78 meters triangle that I chose located down the road from my house, but maybe I want to focus on an idea that would involve my community.

I came on this program with the belief that city life was the farthest place I could go to get away from agriculture. I grew up with an idea of the superiority of urban life, with highest value being placed on the tall buildings, the public transportation, and the distance from the corn fields of Kansas from which I constantly strove to separate myself. After coming to Lotan, I fell in love with agricultural communities and, early on in my stay, I decided that maybe urban life wasn’t for me after all. Now that the end is in sight and I’ve begun to picture my home and life at school, I’ve begun to realize that I can combine my love for the land with my obsession with the city. I don’t need to be living in a world of cement and metal. I can live in a world of greenery, delicious looking vegetables, and beautiful insects while enjoying an urban lifestyle.

And so my pile of homework doesn’t seem as daunting because I know what I have learned and I am ready to bring it home. There will be other piles of homework-urban agricultural studies I have yet to participate in. And there will be times where it seems overwhelming. But traveling to Lotan and exploring what I’ve always tried to detachment myself from and then realizing how amazing it truly is has helped me realize that I can have the best of both worlds in the amazing city where I grew up.

This is what I am going to focus on in my permaculture project-how to create a sustainable community rather than a sustainable house-that will bring people from my neighborhood together. Maybe when I return home and share some of my ideas, it will take off and we will be able to form stronger community connections and an urban agriculture center.