She Taught Us about Compassion and about What It Means to Have a Dream and to Chase It
Wrapping up two full quarters working with Juanita's Flowers, it's easy to look back and see how our involvement has increased and become more and more natural as time passed. We started off very unsure of what this endeavor would entail, and I think I speak for all of my group members when I say that we developed relationships that have more meaning than we would have expected at the start. This is with regards to both our Santa Clara team, as well as the business owners themselves.
There is one moment in particular that stands out as making this commitment worth it and really feeling the sense of pride for all the work that we put in. I was at the flower shop helping Sandra and Esthela take pictures to be able to use for future marketing campaigns. It was right before Mother's Day, and their shop was packed full with as many flowers as they could fit in the hope to be able to keep up with the demand on one of their busiest days of the year. We were taking photos of arrangement after arrangement, and I was doing my best to try and do the flowers the justice they deserved. After 45 minutes or so of taking pictures, we wrapped things up and I helped them start cleaning up. It was during this time that Esthela started to open up about how much our involvement meant to them and how fortunate she felt to have the chance to be able to learn from us.
I realized how crazy it seemed that this woman held me and four other students in such high regard. We feel like we have no idea what we're doing and like this is a brand new experience, yet in Esthela's eyes we were these "experts". The reality is that we learned as much if not more from her caring personality and how much she was committed to the mission of her flower shop. She taught us about compassion and about what it means to have a dream and to chase it. This quarter has been an incredible learning experience, and I am thankful to have been able to be a part of it.