Internship: Beauty, Love, and the Pursuit of Fabulous

Korrin B.

July 11, 2010 - 3:53 PM

I think this blog post could probably also be titled "Getting Back to the Basics." The ideas of beauty, love, and being fabulous are pretty core to the way I live my life, but I think that they are also sometimes too easy to forget about when wrapped up in the stress of work or school.

Last summer, I ended my internship with the Fresh Air Fund by traveling for a couple of weeks through New York. This led me to my past blog post about the importance of finding moments of fabulousity in everyday life. While in New York, I found a lot of beauty and I found that beauty in many forms. That is what I love about traveling to new places for work. Being in a new environment presents the opportunity to explore and to find those moments that make you realize just how special the experience is. I always look forward to days in my life where I find "the feeling" and often find it while traveling to new places.

I first noted "the feeling" during my travels in Greece and have since then been unable to properly define it in words. It usually just involves some motioning toward my heart and a face filled with calm joy. "The feeling" is a sensation that overtakes the body when presented with an environment or situation that exudes beauty. I feel as though I spent the beginning of my time here in Atlanta forgetting about "the feeling." This realization set me on a path of the pursuit of the fabulous, to find beauty and love in the space I am in and the work I am doing. My first honest experience of "the feeling" came not in the office, but on the farm.

Last weekend, I went with one of my intern friends to his farm. The farm is about an hour and a half north of Atlanta. His family and friends were having a Fourth of July party out at their campsite. The campsite was out in the woods near the pasture and next to the river. The party involved a large amount of good foods, including barbeque, potato salad, baked beans, and more. Some of the people at the party brought their instruments and played in a circle on their guitars and banjos as the sun slowly set. There was a bonfire over which I, of course, cooked one of my famous s'mores. The scene was filled with simple joys and the environment was so peaceful and serene. I loved being out there because it was as if I didn't have to worry about anything for a moment. For a moment, my mind stopped thinking about everything I needed to do.

I loved just sitting and listening to the crickets. As the night took over, the fireflies came out in their attempt to blend the stars in the sky with the land. The air cooled down, but it was still hot enough out that a jacket was unnecessary. It got later and the music kept playing and I looked at some of the children who were present begin to get their sleepy faces and snuggle close to their parents. I slept the night under the stars, the sounds of owls and coyotes in the distance. It was perfect. It felt so nice to be away from everything for a moment and just relax and enjoy.

That farmland was such an extreme place of beauty of love in a way that I haven't really experienced before. Recently, I have been infatuated by cities. After New York, I was convinced that everything wonderful and everything I wanted could be found in the concrete jungle. This trip let me see how much I equally love and appreciate the country. It is quiet and peaceful out there in a way that nowhere else is.

I went back out there this weekend and picked a gallon of blueberries. After a long week, it was almost like a form of meditation to be able to just focus on picking berries. The hot sun and the sweat no longer bothered me, but became instead a part of the experience, a part of the beauty. There is something charming about the South. It is easy to get stuck in the routine, but what I am learning is that to be free in the South, in Georgia, is to be carefree, well-fed, listening to great music, and looking at love in a new way.

Stay tuned as I continue my quest for beauty, love, and everything fabulous in the South. I'm excited to have found "the feeling" again if only for a moment.