Avocado Do Something!

by Hannah S. ’21, Oak Grove Student Newspaper, June 2020

When one of my family members asked me to explain my quarantine experience in one word, I said “grateful.” I chose this word because quarantine has made me aware of how much I had taken for granted, such as a loving school community, relationships with people, physical touch, fresh produce, my family having stable jobs, nature, and oddly enough, toilet paper! With these feelings of gratitude comes immense sorrow because not all are as fortunate during times like these. Morally, I have been searching to find comfort in living this way while others are struggling to make ends meet. I am not sure that my inquiry surrounding social inequality will ever come to an end but rather, it has just started.

With the current parameters of social distancing, I almost feel helpless to support the community and the world. Finding ways to contribute from home has proven to be very difficult; however, my search continued. I was doing my daily search on Facebook (yes, Facebook has been added to my new and improved quarantine schedule), and my aunt was going viral on Trevor Quirk’s Facebook page for donating three bins of avocados to families in need.

Seeing this post sparked my internal flashlight and inspired me to see how I could do my part in this community effort. Soon after, my father mentioned the idea of getting our family members down to do a social distancing picking extravaganza on my Aunt Tanaya’s ranch on Koenigstein Road. And that same Sunday, eight of us gathered, six feet apart of course, with clippers in hand. While picking, I found happiness in the little things: the sunshine, smiles on faces, dirt on hands, and the productive feeling of helping out. In the end, we ended up gathering a thousand pounds’ worth of avocados, half of which were distributed to the community of Ojai. This small effort only took three hours but goes to show how little things can contribute a lot. Overall, quarantine has given me an awareness of life as a whole and how grateful I am to be living and learning in such a special way. As well as the start of many more avocado picking days!