I have always been involved in activities throughout my life in which I had to do community service. Whether it be a simple two hours to, sometimes, even 10 hours. However, from all the years of being required to do community service for my sports, or for National Honors Society, I have grown a huge passion towards it. Not only does community service give you the opportunity to give back to others in the community who are not as lucky as you but can teach you many powerful lessons in life. I never thought going to stay on an Indian reserve for a week, building them a house and simply just hanging out with some of the kids would make an impact on them at all but I changed their lives.
I have had the opportunity, in my 19 short years of life, to be involved in some very powerful missions through my church or simply just activities I was involved in. I have been to Pensacola, Fla. two times, and built four houses for people who did not have a place to call their own, and each time going back we were able to see the house we had built previously and the family that now lives there. Seeing something that started as a concrete slab, turn into a home for a loving and very grateful family is a feeling I cannot describe.
My senior year of high school my church youth group decided to go work on an Indian reservation in Arizona right by the border of Mexico. This is not a very safe place for white people to be - we had to be with a native Indian at all times, and were not allowed to just wander around on our own free will. While on the reserve, what seemed to me as normal acts I would do every day were miracles to these people. We picked up trash, repaired building, repainted, and even began the construction of another building. However, the single most important part to me on this trip was the interactions we had with the children on the reserve. Just a simple game of catch, or cards, meant the world to them. To see people not from their reservation taking time out of their lives to come help them made a big impact on them, and they told us everyday how much they loved us. However, whatever impact I was making on them they were making an everlasting impact on me.
It’s hard to explain the feeling you can get when helping someone. However, the feeling is one that does not go away. Even going and preparing a meal at a homeless meal. serving it, and talking to the people there can be a life changing experience.
No longer do I look at community service as a required task. I look at it as an opportunity for me to help someone. An opportunity for me to give back to a world that has given so much to me. And an opportunity to change someone’s life for the better.
