I love service learning, commitment to the outside community is one of the reasons I chose to come to school here 4 years ago and am pleased to see it being carried through even to my senior year. My placement was perfect. First I was nervous about it, my friend had already built relationships with so many of the residents at Project Lazarus that I thought it would be hard to build my own. Also I was unsure how these relationships would foster with dealing with such a heavy topic of AIDS and HIV. All of my fears were quickly put to bed as I came to realize that not only did I belong here, but that the residents brought happiness to my Thursdays. I feel as though serving at Project Lazarus has opened up my compassion for people, my ability to open up to people, as well as my desire to tell people what they mean to me.
I’ll start by explaining compassion. I have the ability to drop people out of my life and keep moving on. While I don’t see it as a negative thing, often times it makes me look past people in ways that aren’t rude, but don’t give people their due respect when interacting with them for an extended period of time. Because Project Lazarus is a traditional living house, most residents only stay for a maximum of two years, but they live in that moment and thrive with being around each other, that I can’t imagine seeing them apart. Next, seeing the residents share their stories and snow-balling off of each other and furthering their bond with each other was so beautiful to watch and truly let me know that you never know who’s story you might share, or what you can learn from someone else if you aren’t willing to share . Lastly the first day I started serving there, a former resident had just passed away, and while I was there another former resident had passed and several residents had moved in and out. Although I have had my own experiences with death, the looks on the other residents’ faces re affirmed that you never truly know what the future holds and you should always praise others and tell them what you feel. The residents never stopped thanking us for spending time with them or teaching them new games, that appreciation fueled my desire to do more and come back every week, even when school was wearing me down.
I will absolutely continue to serve my community and I believe that I have found that one on one serving works best for me, to have a direct impact on someone’s life makes me the happiest, knowing that I had a conversation when someone just wanted to talk or helped pay a bill when someone couldn’t understand how fills me with such joy. Often I compare myself to others in materialistic things as well as friends or family units, but to know I have the ability to brighten up someone’s day and at the same time have them brighten up mine fills me with joy that no amount of friends or extended family members could replace.
Choosing one memorable conversation is almost like picking a favorite child. They were all so important, but maybe the most important was when a resident came to me for help trying to figure out his credit score and later revealed that he came to me and me only, because he trusted me. To know that I had gained the trust of a much older white man in only a matter of weeks blew my mind and filled me with such pride, it made me know that what I was doing was all worth it and at the same time made me feel guilty that I wouldn’t be there longer or I couldn’t do more.
I could not have asked for a better service learning experience than the one I got working with Project Lazarus this semester.
No comments:
Post a Comment