One of my biggest joys in life has always been making other people happy. There is nothing I love more than to see someone else smiling because of something I did, even if it was as simple as singing him a little song or telling her a cheesy joke. Knowing that I made another human's day a little brighter makes my own day considerably better, and that is a feeling I never thought I would get tired of.

Throughout my life, service has played a considerable role. Although giving a stranger a smile as we're passing on the sidewalk feels great, helping others has a much larger impact as a whole. Beginning when I became a Brownie in first grade, I spent much of my time volunteering. From singing at retirement homes and cleaning up day care centers with my church's service camp to assisting teachers at my community theater, I have served many different organizations and helped many people.

When I got to college, I didn't want to give up my passion, so I joined Omega Phi Alpha, the service sorority on my campus. I adored it, because it gave me all the aspects of being a part of a social sorority, but also had that added element of many different types of service, rather than focusing on just one philanthropy. I worked happily as a part of this organization for three years, serving BGSU students, the Bowling Green and Toledo communities, nations all over the world, and even my fellow sisters.

This last semester, however, things started to change. I wasn't enjoying helping people as much as I had in the past. Going to service events became a chore, and the projects themselves felt more like work than a chance to aid someone else. I ended up deciding to go alum--despite having one more semester of school left--because my heart just wasn't in it anymore. That saddened me, because I couldn't figure out how to pull myself out of this slump.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to work as a leader for my church's Middle School Service Camp. During this two day retreat, I led a group of several preteen students through service projects and was meant to be teaching them why helping others is important and feels good. The only problem was, I was having trouble understanding that lesson myself.

The first day of the camp, the groups set out to neighborhoods in the surrounding area to collect pop cans. Our goal was to raise as much money as we could, and then each individual group could choose what they wanted to do with their earnings, from buying canned goods for a food pantry to donating to a charity. My group raised just over $100, and we decided that we would split the money up. We bought about $75 worth of groceries, and then at the checkout were able to support the veterans as well.

At the end of the process, we still had about $20 left, so the kids decided that whoever came up behind us would receive the money to help pay for his or her groceries. A woman walked up with a cart full of food and got in line behind us. When we offered to pay it forward and take care of $20 of her groceries, her face lit up and she got so excited, and it was then that I remembered why I find such happiness in volunteering.

Even though spending the better part of the afternoon out in the hot sun trudging through the streets with heavy bags of cans and bottles was not what some would call "fun," it was all worth it to see the look of pure joy on her face as we paid for over half her cart. We didn't know her story, didn't know whether spending money on this food was no big deal or whether she was using her entire week's paycheck. The only thing we did know was that our hard work that afternoon gave her a little extra money to buy some new clothing, or pay a bill, or take her kids to the zoo. Service may not always be the most exciting activity one could possibly do, but seeing the smiles and hearing the gratitude from the people you've helped definitely makes it a rewarding one.