PROMPT 1

The roots of the relationship I have with my community sprouts back to my 8^th grade year of middle school. It started with volunteering at my church, which I’ve been attending all my life. A little background on my church: It was built in 1955, the wooden pews were rarely filled with more than a hundred bodies at mass, and everyone knew everyone’s name, first and last; if they ever had visitors, they would treat them as if they were their own blood relative. Every Sunday, I’d serve as an acolyte on the altar making sure my assigned tasks during the service were performed with adequacy and precision. My regime ranged from setting up the altar following precise orders, to reading aloud to the congregation the daily psalm or prayer for the peoples. No matter how miniscule or grand the chore was I always took pride in my weekly routine. Feelings of accomplishment ran within my veins as parishioners complimented my confident appearance, and gave kudos to me for doing so well. Knowing that I, a product of a notorious young generation, gave hope to the large elderly population of my church served as a motivation for volunteering as an acolyte for four and a half years. Occasionally, one of the children would want to help as an acolyte. I’d always welcome anyone who held passion in becoming an acolyte. With patience and nurturing, the children were completing jobs as competent as any adult would have. You’d have the four feet tall elementary kids carrying around an acolyte cross twice their size. Children always look up to older people like me, because they see me as a “monkey see monkey do” example. With that in mind, I always was on the ball about dressing conservatively, minding my manners with adults, and focusing on the sermon the entire hour without a slip of sleep in my system. The greatest reward was hearing the kids’ parents and grandparents praising them after the service. During the tough years my church went through, I solely served on the altar without any supervision; I even took on jobs only deacons, which aided a pastor during service, were supposed to do. It was under this pressure that I felt the most compelled to work harder then ever. Throughout these years, I’ve learned that you can touch someone’s life in the subtlest of ways. Whether one attends a church, mosque, or temple, it’s gratifying knowing that spending a day volunteering during services brings joy to the community.

            My sophomore year my church had a Bible summer camp. I decided to volunteer as a camp counselor’s assistant. For one week, I built friendships with the elementary aged campers, and watched them grow in knowledge and friendship with one another. Interacting with the kids benefited me possibly more than it did them. A child’s perspective on life is based on simplicity and innocence. They know how and when to make someone laugh at just the perfect time. We taught them lessons such as “treat others the way you’d like to be treated” through ball games and hula-hoop filled obstacle courses. They’re not yet aware of the malevolence of the world. Although they were supposed to learn from me, I actually learned many lessons from just observing them. One of them is that sometimes you need to pause life, put work aside, and push stress out of your main focus in life. You’ll start to realize how much you’ve been blessed with in life. You forget that you have food in your fridge whenever you’re hungry, or that you have a bed to sleep in every night. We tend to take simple things for granted when we only worry about our problems and what we don’t have in life.

            Freshmen year I decided to volunteer every Saturday from 12-4 p.m. for three months at Westside Regional Hospital. Wanting the maximum knowledge of experience as possible, within those three months I trained in food services, oncology level, cardiology level, and the emergency room. In food services, I was taught how to put together meals for over 200 patients within two hours. Since a hospital had patients that were prescribed special diets, it was my responsibility to double-check each meal to make sure it went to the right patient. On the oncology and cardiology levels, I interacted with the nursing staff and followed them as they did their daily routine check ups with their assigned patients. My main duty was to tend to the patients’ call lights, basic needs, and to go around with the trolley of water, ice, and snacks making sure each person was as comfortable as one could be in a hospital bed. One elderly man in his 70’s suffered from frequent heart attacks. Every time I entered his room to refill his water cup, he always managed with what little strength he had to smile and say to me, “I’ll get out of here one day and go sky diving.” The optimism he held in such a frail state caused me to reflect on my own life. Here’s an old man, a few strings away from passing on, yet, he had the spirit of ten-year-old boy. I’m eighteen, with a precise step-by-step plan on how I want my future up to the age of twenty-eight. I need to enjoy the years of my youth, and always keep my chin up even in the roughest times in life. Being discouraged only let’s the pain and worry overcome life. The only weapons I have against it are cheery smiles and a positive attitude that could knock death off his horse.

Other community involvement the past three years includes planting trees on my school’s campus. I’ve always been concerned about a greener earth for my generation’s future. After all, the way we treat our environment today affect’s the well being of the earth tomorrow, and for future generations to come. Once a month after school, or on the weekend, I would come to school in the morning and spend approximately 3 hours weeding, mulching, and cleaning up around my school’s grounds. One of our activities included depositing over 300 grass carp into the lake in the front our school to eat the algae. This would allow more oxygen to be available to other marine organisms, and diversify the ecosystem further. Additionally, I’ve been involved in the Ft. Lauderdale breast cancer walk my sophomore and junior years. It’s always inspiring hearing survivor’s stories. They constantly remind me to never take life for granted, and to live each day to its fullest.

Throughout my various volunteer experiences, I’ve learned one valuable lesson: The greatest people on earth aren’t rockstars, celebrities, or professional sports players. They’re the people right in your own community, whether it’s children eager to help out despite their size, an elderly person with stories and a history to pass onto the next generation, a student concerned about the environment, or a cancer survivor battling against the odds and a mindset never to give up hope. These people bring communities vibrancy and life, and I’m proud to have had the opportunity to learn from them.