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Two-time alum Elijah Pineda-Rodriguez is sharing his experience serving with SCA and the poem he was inspired to write after his time as an apprentice crew leader in Houston.

Howdy Everyone! My name is Elijah Pineda-Rodriguez and I was an apprentice crew leader this past summer with the SCA. I am eighteen years old and was born and raised here in Houston where I have spent my past two summers with the SCA. My first experience with the SCA was last summer when I was a member of the Houston Youth Crew, and I had such an amazing time that I couldn’t help but come back. This fall, I will be attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where I will major in plant biology, so I was so very grateful to have the chance to spend my last summer before college working outdoors, surrounded by the natural beauty of my native city. My time as a leader with the SCA was definitely one of the most meaningful and memorable experiences of my life, and I would one hundred percent recommend the opportunity to anyone interested in this kind of work.

I’ll miss climbing on sprawling live oak trees,
Not the pesky ragweed that makes me sneeze.
 
The aroma of magnolia flows,
Carried by the wind that the gulf coast blows.
 
The cicadas sing their sweet summer song,
Then cricket’s chirp knock me out all night long.
 
Where bluebonnets litter every roadside,
No other place would I rather reside.
 

 
From the bustle of the bayou city,
To the Great Plains that are oh so pretty.
 
With its majestic mountains in Big Bend, 
And dust storms in the west that never end.
 
South Padre Island where water’s so clear,
But brown water Galveston I hold dear.
 
It’s where scrumptious pecans fall with no end, 
And pears have mean prickles, made to defend.
 

 
Canyons and caverns and Caddo Lake too, 
Where else in the world is the sky so blue?
 
There’s no where that the night sky is so bright,
No other place brings me this much delight.
 
When I’m far and gone I will miss you so, 
This is just goodbye til’ our next hello.
 
The state of the Lone Star is the one for me, 
Eternally grateful I am for thee.