By Kale Connerty
Reflection
In the eight years since I graduated from UMass Lowell, I’ve had some very meaningful opportunities to use my Spanish minor, though not as often as I would like. That is to say, I’ve grown rusty, so when I reread my essay to write this reflection, I was happy to find that I could still understand what I wrote! Rereading this essay nearly a decade after writing it, I’m quite proud of my younger self, and grateful for the editorial support I received from Profesor Ubelaker Andrade to make my ideas shine. I am reminded how, at the time, I was just discovering a budding sense of global consciousness, and how important and exciting it was for me to foster that.
I see this global consciousness in the endeavor itself of writing this essay, of trying to communicate in another language. And I see it in the themes of this essay, as I explore the intersections of indigenous rights movements, environmental movements, American geopolitics, and philosophy. The moment we’re in now feels like a particularly sobering time to reflect on the issues I was just starting to learn about in college. I wish that in the last ten years there had been more happy progress to report on these issues. I think 20-year-old Kale wanted to save the world really badly, and she might be disappointed to learn that nearly-30-year-old Kale has not accomplished this. Instead, I am a writer and a teacher. However, the issues I was interested in then are things that have continued to guide me today.
I think some of my most rewarding memories from the last eight or so years connect back to this essay and this time in my life. Like when I had the amazing opportunity to attend an international sustainability conference in Ireland, representing UMass Lowell’s Office of Sustainability. There, my experience was so enriched by being able to converse in Spanish with a cohort of environmental scientists and sociologists from Latin American universities. Or like the book club I helped form at one of the organizations I worked for. My majority-white colleagues and I committed to reading environmental accounts from the perspectives of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, and challenging our ideas of what environmentalism looked like. Or like when I worked as an environmental educator. One of my favorite memories was helping middle schoolers with Latin American roots create a bilingual nature dictionary for our “Outdoor Adventures” club. Or when I think more generally about how I have tried to show up as an activist, an advocate, and a friend. Many of the ideas I researched for this essay have influenced the kinds of community I try to seek out and foster.
Thinking more directly about how writing for CANAL influenced my career path…this project was instrumental in developing my confidence as a writer, both in my creative writing and my professional writing. I also still include this essay on my résumé, to demonstrate my proficiency in and love for the Spanish language. I do think this has helped me stand out as a job applicant. Even though I don’t practice my Spanish as often as I would like, I’m always surprised by how quickly the language comes back to me, especially when I write in Spanish. And speaking in another language is just so fun! I hope I will have more opportunities to do so in the future. I’m sure I will continue to seek them out.
Writing for CANAL was truly such a special experience, one that I still cherish, and I can’t fully express how grateful I am to my professors at UMass Lowell for offering this opportunity. Life has moved pretty fast since I graduated in 2018. The issues I was interested in then, and that I used my time at UMass Lowell to investigate, ponder, and form beliefs around, are things that have continued to guide me today. My parting advice to current students is that college is not only a place to practice skills or gain knowledge and experience; it’s a time to dig deeply into the ideas that you’re curious or passionate about. The ideas you take the time to form now can and will influence how you show up in the world for years to come.
Read "Entre lo espiritual y lo sostenible" Canal Issue II (2018).
Biographical Statement - Kale Connerty
After working with environmental organizations for several years, Kale is currently teaching and earning her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.