If I had to pick the one thing that I’ve gotten tired of while at Pomona, I would probably choose the standard four-keg-and-a-DJ party in Eversole Courtyard. You know the type: first-year girls dancing on the wall, crazy-long lines for beer, no bathrooms, and the whole place trashed at brunchtime the next morning.

Trimmed with bone necklaces and orange wooden beads, the lumbering behemoth of a man jangled his way through the classroom threshold, scanning our adolescent faces with blank detachment. We stared, rapt, as our new guest introduced himself as a Ghanaian storyteller, minstrel, and shaman. Students buzzed with anticipation.

Gardens just may be the solution to the world's problems. A garden can bring together a community, reunite us with Nature, create food and medicine, and can be a symbol of pride and majesty. A garden teaches us that we cannot control our world, and that we should not want to, either; yet if we allow ourselves to, we can make a garden into whatever sort of space we desire for ourselves. A garden recycles all of its resources and balances itself as well, and this inspires us, in turn, to balance our lives and use our own resources wisely.