Internship in conlusion-This paper is worth is 3 credit hours, well and the internship itself.

As a student in the Landscape Architecture program of the California Polytechnic State University, I have learned many things about myself. I can be an efficient worker. Creativity is a must in whatever I do. I can lose myself in hours of projects I enjoy. And I don’t like homework. While working in an internship with Kevin J. Small, a Landscape Architect and alumnus of Cal Poly, I learned that all these things about myself will provide for me some great opportunities.

In Santa Maria, California, the landscape architect, Kevin Small has an up and coming firm called PleinAire Design Group. This firm works in a wide variety of projects. They design places and spaces for the city of Santa Maria, Corporations, and private citizens, when there is time in the schedule. There are also several community service projects that they help with throughout the year. It was one of these projects that I contributed to during the summer of 2006.

The Santa Maria Valley Botanical Garden or SMVBG has been a goal of many citizens of Santa Maria for a number of years. They got together with PleinAire Design Group and me to create a conceptual design. The design was to be presented to a board at the Santa Maria Airport. As the airport is doing some service projects of their own, they are distributing some land to the public for uses such as a potential botanical garden. The first concept would be presented to the board for approval so that approximately 15 acres would be given to the SMVBG.

I worked on the design for the garden over the entire summer. I met with members of the board to get input and views of what the gardens should be. There were a number of times where my clients wanted things that were not actually possible in the places that they wanted them. But I suppose this is something that has to be dealt with in the job. We however accommodated and came up with a design we both agreed upon.

While working at the office, I worked on other projects as well. I helped Kevin with projects inside the office such as filing and correcting references. It’s amazing how much LA 353 helped me with the comprehension of such things. On my resume I had written that I knew Photoshop and was at least introduced to AutoCAD. This worried me. I came to find however that my knowledge of Photoshop far surpassed most of the employs in the office. I spent many days working on graphics and renderings. I helped improve office images and corrected seams in project spreads from magazines. My self-introduced AutoCAD abilities were even enough to be able to draft for the office.

The biggest lesson that I learned working this summer had to be about fear. I learned that just because people work in offices doesn’t mean that they are smarter than me. It doesn’t mean they know so much more than me. They have just been doing it longer. I know that whatever I do, it will take me awhile to acclimate myself to the working experience and the ups and downs of the job. But I also know, now, after my experience this summer, that I will enjoy this career, no matter which way it takes me.

Decision

Is a shooting star falling in its blaze of glory a positive sign when you finally have come to a conclusion to one of life's hurdles?

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

On a lighter side, the movie to see right now is Stranger than Fiction. I found it funny and romantic, but not in the usual Hollywood classification of romanticism. More in the, "that painting is beautiful" kinda way. Will Ferrel actually showed that he could act, and the sequence of ironies was almost poetic. So, I say, "Go see it."

Old

I realised something tonight, as I drove home. I'm getting old. I'm in my fourth year of college. My sister's married. My other sister is just a year away from the BIG 3..O. Our last young'un, well i suppose I can't call him that, turned 21 today. Happy Birthday Doug. The last of the, finally! you're old enough to do something birthdays. Alcohol allowance aside, we're adults now, no longer children. Though some of us (hem..hem) may still be dependent upon our parents, soon enough, we won't be. So maybe I'm not getting old. I'm just getting adult. Looking at all the Yosemite Tower One people that I am still friends with, I'm rather suprised. Of all the things we've been through, all the changes we've made to ourselves and our lives, we still come together as friends. That leads to the question. Did we change together? Or just adapt to our changes, good or bad? Maybe we just walked the path together, keeping us attached. Other friends chose a different path, when I see them, they seem so different to me, but they're not. I just didn't get the chance, the time to acclimate to them. How different am I from the Laura of freshman year? Or the Laura of High School? Would my friends from those years see me so differently? How would, will I see them? Have my sister's changed on me too? So little discussion with them in the past four years, hours literally, are they people I don't know? Maybe I'm just home sick and studying about the world of globalization and economy is just making me pessimistic, needing my bed at home. But I can't go home, not to the one I know. My sister is married, my dog is gone, and things change, like growing up.

"Save the cheerleader, save the world."

Its amazing how quickly I have found I judge people. As I was driving to school the other day, I was waiting at the light. I saw what seemed to me a rather disreputable guy. He was wearing a do-rag and was dressed like basically a wannabe gangster. I made sure my windows were locked, as someone (ahh-hem) trained me to do. When the light turned green, much to my suprise, the guy ran accross the street only to help a woman, holding a white cane walk back accross the street safely. My bad?

In other news. I'm getting sick. I have tried all I could to keep it off. I have taken my vitamins, drank my milk, taken naps when I have the chance, but the sore throat is catching up with me. In unrelated news, I am probably going to get my flu shot tommorrow. It was recommended to me to get a flu shot for travelling to Europe so that I won't get sick there and slow the group down in my illness. Not me, not this time. I'm gonna be the healthy one. Maybe I will even lose weight carrying all my possessions for the trip with me accross Europe ;).

OK, so good tv. I have made a mistake. I watched every episode of Heroes to date. I Love It! Better than Smallville ever was, sorry Kara. It's better than Lost too, sorry, it just is. How I met your Mother is a good show and Grey's anatomy is up there too. Im actually amazed at the level of good television that has arisen in the past few years. Oh, and Office. Haha, so much for claiming I don't watch TV anymore. I'm out.