It’s more than a graduation requirement. It’s more than that “warm fuzzy feeling”. It’s more than three or four hours of your time. Service is a way of life, an action deeply appreciated by many, and a passion.
It is my main purpose in life to help others, leave the world a little better than it was, and make a difference. I started to work toward this goal in fifth grade, helping the Bellevue Baby Corner sort donations with my classmates. I also helped distribute food to the needy in sixth grade, and in the following years continued to help at Hopelink, Mountains to Sound Greeenway, and my school’s environmental club – I organized food cans, planted trees, and removed invasive blackberry bushes and ivy. This budding passion for service increased and eventually settled as I entered high school and became interested in a more focused area of giving back to the community.
As a dedicated member of my school’s Key Club, an international service organization, for the past four years, I still participate in all kinds of service projects. But my main focus has been concentrated on helping people with mental disabilities. My younger brother, Arthur, has Down syndrome, and he has tremendously impacted my life. My mother has been raising us both single-handedly, which means that she spends most of her time at work, away from home. Growing up, my brother was my only constant companion, and we would often visit imaginary foreign lands as sea-pirates on our sofas, climb the stairs as if we were reaching the peak of an epic mountain, or hide in forts made of couch cushions and blankets. He never fails to provide a smile and a daily hug for me, even today. His influence has led me to a desire to help others like him, and in my freshman year of high school I began volunteering for Families for Effective Autism Treatment of Washington (FEAT of WA). I helped and am still helping small children with autism, as well as their siblings, through fun activities on a monthly basis, and today I help at the charity’s auction as well, even donating my own artwork. FEAT has grown close to me over the years, as I have consistently helped them, the kids, and the kids’ families over my entire high school career.
However, I wanted to do more. I wanted to expand my services to more than just the autism community; I wanted to help people of all mental disabilities. Combining this wish with my passion for the visual arts, I initiated biweekly arts and crafts classes for kids with disabilities at the Highland Community Center. I talked to the Center myself to get the idea started, filled out the appropriate forms, waited for the state’s approval, got my peers to join me in teaching these classes, gathered the necessary supplies, and brainstormed lesson plans. We have helped kids make paper bag puppets, Styrofoam cup monsters, and even finger-paint, among other projects. The most rewarding part of this activity, however, has not been the kids; it has been the effect the classes have had on my classmates, who have come to me expressing their new realizations about people with disabilities. These people, who are normally regarded with fear and derision, had found new friends. I have exposed my classmates to the great compassion these people are capable of, a compassion I learn first-hand from Arthur every day. This is my ultimate goal in my service to those with special needs: to make others realize the love these people can give and to eliminate the sense of fear too often regarded toward them.
Outside of my service to people with disabilities, I also engage in other activities to better my community. At school, I have been a peer tutor in Spanish, chemistry, and math. I have contributed my time and energy to my fellow IB students at school through activities organized by the IB Student Council, of which I am a member. I have also helped plan and execute school events. This year, I organized our school’s first ever International Night, involving students and teachers alike in helping bring and set up food, games, decorations, crafts, and performances from around the world. I hoped to help others appreciate the vast cultural diversity of our school in a festive celebration involving the whole community with this event, and it was a success. Over one hundred people attended International Night, which involved nearly five months of planning, and everyone found it enlightening and fun, just as I had intended.
However, my goal to make a positive difference is not limited to high school. I am planning to attend Northwestern University, and in college, I will definitely join a service club and start an activity for people with disabilities if there is not one already. I plan to contribute my time and energy to bettering my community on all levels – local, national, and world-wide – for the rest of my life. I plan to go into medicine and am thinking of working for Doctor Without Borders. If not, I am interested in medical research, which would lead to helping diagnose, treat, and even cure illnesses for people all over the world.
Service is an important necessity in the lives of all human beings. Giving back to the community not only helps thousands of people live a little better, but it also teaches the skills and virtues of responsibility, compassion, sensitivity, and open-mindedness. It educates and makes people aware of our society’s problems and motivates them to fix what is wrong with the way the world works, reducing ignorance and ultimately bettering the community for everyone. Service creates a win-win situation: the receiver has something to smile about for the day, and the giver learns valuable life skills. One of my favorite quotes is by Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
