My name is Ben and I am a born and raised Western New Yorker. The buds and leaves are starting to show up here in Buffalo, and as they do I am only growing more and more excited to leave Buffalo and make some new buds during my first season as a Teen Treks Trip Leader.......Yeah! Just for fun, as a stand-in for a description of my hobbies and interests, I’ve decided that I am going to describe the right speaker from the stereo system in my bedroom. The speaker itself stands nearly 4 feet tall and can often be found playing anything between James Taylor and Juice WRLD at moderate to nearly extreme volumes. It is also adorned with various stickers that I identify with in one way or another, two of which are from Geneseo, NY. The first shows a map of the village and is labeled “SUNY ‘Geneseo Geography’ Department” and the second has the logo from the local farmers’ market. Other significant place based pieces of sticky plastic include one that I bought at a bookstore in Boulder, Colorado and another that says “ I love Our Public Lands” which is acting as a proxy for all of my favorite City, State, and National Parks that even I don’t have enough speaker space to represent individually. To quickly mention the others, I also have a “Modern Lovers” sticker from a Jonathan Richman show, a “NY Renews” sticker from my favorite NYS-based coalition of environmental justice focused non-profits, the “Burton” logo that fell off of my ski gloves, and finally a somewhat preemptive “Teen Treks – Be Adventurous” sticker that I picked up recently at a bike touring workshop. Additionally, and in conclusion, atop the speaker sits a book of essays and maps of New Orleans that I purchased in preparation for what turned out to be my favorite road trip to date. In the past, I have worked with teen interns on a mobile farmers market and really enjoyed it because we were entering new communities and learning about the world that we live in first hand. I am really looking forward to continuing that trend by getting dirty and sweaty on the road this summer with some new friends.
