This blog post is a piece I wrote toward the end of my freshman year in college, spring 2014. Within it I discuss the simplicity of asking for help when you need it. Original post can be found here.

Back in the summer of 2013, I went with my church's youth group to Heifer International's ranch in Perryville, Arkansas. Let me tell you-- that place was in the middle of nowhere... and I'm not kidding. The town had a couple of dollar stores, a Sonic, and a Mexican restaurant. That's it. Grocery store? Oh, that burned down some years ago...

Anyway, the trip to Heifer was for our annual mission trip. This was my first mission trip experience, as I had never been on one in the past. I didn't originally plan on going, but one of my friends convinced me to go last minute.

When we finally arrived we were introduced to our leaders for the week: Keely and Maddie. They were there to guide us throughout the week and educate us on Heifer's mission and purpose. Heifer International works with communities to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. With that in mind, we really got a better understanding of what that meant after our week on the ranch.

To summarize our week on the ranch, we spent a couple days working in the fields, caring for the animals, and doing maintenance. A couple other days we learned how to make tortillas and were educated on composting, and even made our own pizzas completely from scratch using resources they had on the ranch (yes, goat cheese and tomato sauce made from the tomatoes in the garden). We did team building exercises which would help us prepare for our experience in the Global Village in which we stayed for one night (Tuesday). Those team building exercises really stuck with me, aside from what I learned that night in the Village.

Camel time!

Dinner time in the Urban Slums of the Global Village

One of the things I've carried with me since the mission trip was "if you need help, just ask." It is such a simple phrase, but asking for help may not seem so simple at first. I have always been a bit stubborn about asking others for help. Part of that is my pride, because I feel like I can do things on my own. I learned that sometimes you can't do everything all on your own. More often than not, we need someone to help us out along the way.

Since 2011 I have been struggling with grief over the loss of my maternal grandfather. He and I were very close throughout my life, so when he passed it tore my heart at the seams, as it did many people in the family. At the time I was busy holding myself together so my sadness wouldn't affect my family around me, so I guess you could say I was the one trying to keep the strength. Well, not talking about it led to my grief worsening. I found it easy to just shake it off and tell others "I'm fine." But I needed help. I needed someone to talk to. Someone to help me find coping mechanisms which would help me move forward. Not only that, but I also let my health go. My motivation declined due to grief and stress, so I would snack a lot and bum around, not keeping active. I needed someone to help get me back on the right track to a healthier, happier lifestyle.

So exactly how does this relate to what I learned on the mission trip? I'm getting to that.

On our last day at the ranch, we did an interesting sort of team building exercise. We were blindfolded and taken to a maze. We had to pair up with a couple other people and work together to find the end of the rope while holding on to it. All our chaperones and leaders wandered the course to say, "if you need help, just ask." All of us communicated with one another, still blindfolded, trying to find the end. When we thought we were close, we were still on it. People were talking around us, trying to figure it out themselves. I could hear some of my friends ask for help, but me and my group were still too stubborn to ask because we were confident we would find the end soon. As things got quiet, and as time elapsed, I grew tired of trying to find the end, so I asked one of our chaperones for help. He came over to me and removed my blindfold, told me to be quiet, and to join the others from our group. When I sat down with my friends who made it out of the course, I realized something... there was no end to the rope task. I mean literally no end-- the rope was wrapped around several trees so we were basically going in circles! The purpose was to get us to ask for help. Let go of your pride for just a moment if you find you are unable to solve the problem yourself. It is perfectly okay to ask for help. It just takes three simple words and one simple, four-letter question: I need help. Can you help me?

Heading to the rope task, blindfolded.

So that's what I did. When I started my second semester of my freshman year of college, after settling into my dorm on campus, I visited the counseling center to see who I could talk to who would help me to get to feeling better. Seeing a counselor helped a lot. While it doesn't fix things, it allows me to release what is on my mind and having someone to just listen and offer advice at my request. The nutritionist was very helpful too, as she gave me the accountability I needed to get back on track to better health.

If you find yourself struggling with an assignment, a loss, or any other situation you are in, ask somebody for help, whether it be a friend, classmate, family member, or a professional. Asking help is just another step toward moving forward, no matter what your situation is.

Another thing which was implied in our experience at Heifer was stepping out of your comfort zone, or for some, "sitting on the hat brim, and dangling your feet into your comfort zone" (quoted by our chaperone, Becky). That is what we all did when spending the night in the Global Village. The purpose of the Village is to simulate what it is like to live without the luxuries many of us who are well-off have here in the United States. We did not have the luxury of a surplus of food, a toilet, comfortable beds, and couches, nor electricity. Each house was different in some way-- the way they were built, the size of the house, and the flooring. Some of us had to sleep on dirt, others on wood. We were required to bring a water bottle, but everything else was optional. I decided to get the most out of the experience as I felt comfortable and brought my backpack with bug spray, long pants, and my camera (to document everything I could). Not all of us had food, so we applied our team building skills and worked together to enjoy a meal of rice and vegetables. Needless to say, we missed our burgers and cookies! Sleeping was the worst part, though. I missed my bed, but the experience made me very grateful for the luxuries I'm able to have at home that others around the world may not have.

Urban Slums - the ranch's Global Village

Stepping out of your comfort zone is important because it can educate you or make you more aware of things and even make you more aware of yourself.

I've done a lot of things pertaining to stepping out of my comfort zone. The first one is obvious-- asking for help. I'm usually not comfortable asking for help, but I did.

As I wrap up this post, I just wanted to say, if you are in a position like mine or something different, step out of or dangle your feet into you comfort zone, and don't hesitate to ask for help. It is one of the best things you can do for yourself.