Two Rivers

I remember at the beginning of the semester, we talked about going on this field trip to clean up the Los Angeles river. To be honest, I thought it was somewhat ridiculous cleaning the Los Angeles river considering I never really saw it as a river in a first place. I sort of just saw it as a basin that collects our sewage which is true to some degree. However, as we went on with the semester, I became more and more interested in the relationship between the river and Los Angeles considering how we are able to connect the river to so many themes in our classroom. And as the semester went on, we talked about the river so much; however, we never got the chance to look at it up close.

Soon enough, I found myself at the FOLAR cleanup surrounded by my classmates and other enthusiastic volunteers. After getting a couple trash bags, me and my classmates found our way into the basin of the river. The first thing I noticed going in were the trees in the basin! I just assumed it was all water and we would be picking up trash from there so it was a huge surprise. The second thing I noticed was the assortment of trash. I also had the notion that there were only plastic bottles and grocery bags in the river. I was in awe that I couldn't find either plastic bottles nor grocery bags; however, I found an entire shopping cart embedded in the ground. Some other oddities I saw people find was a pan, a children's play set, and even a fire extinguisher! Finally, the most important thing I found in this trip was the duplicitous nature of the river. I noticed that on one end, it was dry and barren with trash ridden all around. On the other side though, I saw the life that the river brought to the animals that inhabited it. To me, it seemed as though there were two rivers. One that brought light and one that brought darkness. Either way however, the people who were volunteering at the event brought the best out of humanity because I noticed how friendly everyone was! People were playing music and there was nothing but smiles despite the weather. I would definitely say this is such a memorable experience and would definitely want to come back again!! (*Hint Hint FOLAR Clean Up 2019 w/ Prof. Hick's best class!!!!* )