Boxes

I was at the farm this morning. My boss was a few minutes late, so I started in on the cucumber harvest...again...I've done little more than harvest cucumbers for the past week. I wasn't really looking forward to it this morning, but I could appreciate how much I've learned about growing and harvesting cucumbers in such a short time. I had only picked 3 cucumbers by the time my boss arrived. Saved!

He confirmed that I was planning to extend my hours once the kids went back to school, then decided it was worth introducing me to the irrigation routine. Squeeeeeee! I love this job. I learned how to turn on the irrigation at the well and where to record the irrigation numbers. We moved some microsprinklers around in a field of newly-seeded beets and carrots. I learned how to identify and repair clogs in the line.

Then we harvested head lettuce. Buckets and buckets and buckets of head lettuce. We removed the drip lines from the now empty lettuce beds and moved on to harvesting kohlrabi: grab, stab, toss. Grab, stab, toss. Nice rhythm to it. While I moved down the line hacking away at kohlrabi, another farm hand I didn't know well joined my boss at the fennel.

All I knew from my brief interactions with this woman was she looked to be in her mid-twenties, she swore like a sailor, drank coffee from a Mason jar, and rarely smiled. She had short-cropped hair under a baseball cap, sunglasses, and gave me the impression that she was too cool for this, but wanted to be there. Confusing. I labeled her as too cool, too coarse, and too young for me to spend my limited supply of social energy on.

Then I overheard her and my boss talking about kindergartners and French and a new job and my consciousness whipped around, astonished. What?! It turns out this woman is a brand-new kindergarten teacher. In a French dual-language program. The mental box that I had previously crammed her into completely blew apart. I was shocked and delighted and intensely curious all at once. And because I am *slowly* learning that it's okay to be my honest and weird self with new people, I turned to her and said, "Hold on. I have a problem with putting people into boxes and I did NOT peg you as a kindergarten teacher." She laughed out loud, and swore, and we started talking.

What a delightful surprise! What a shock! I honestly can't remember all the kohlrabi I harvested because of the fascinating conversation we were having. Unbelievable. This was the last day that my work schedule will overlap with hers, but what a lesson:

Stop it with the "people boxes" already!

Sheesh. It's a social shortcut, sure, and a human instinct, but I've really got to cut back. Or maybe invest in a wider variety of boxes ;)

Could I eventually become good friends with this woman? Yesterday, I would have said "no." Today? I don't know! That's a good feeling, actually, to be surprised in a positive way. It opens up so many possibilities.

This farm, man. It's so much more than growing vegetables.