Have you ever not wanted to do
something so badly that you would rather die than go? Well that’s how I felt
about joining Madcaps and volunteering at Saint Vincent De Paul Homeless
shelter.
But now I believe that you should
have an open mind to things because in the end you might just end up enjoying
it.
“It’s a waste of time”, I said
when my mom told I had to join Madcaps, a mothers and daughters club assisting
philanthropies, and then when she told me I had to volunteer at a homeless
shelter I thought this just could not get worse.
We got there late, of course, and
walked to the dirty homeless shelter, where we saw a lady yelling at the
security guard. He dealt with her and then led us to the kitchen where we ran
into my five fellow Madcaps class of 2017 mothers and daughters. Since I’m
usually so socially awkward I had met only one person at the pool party, earlier
this year. I looked around for her but she was not there. Damn, I was alone!
When the head of the kitchen came
out and asked for 3 mothers to work outside the kitchen to clean up the plates
and silverware, my mom just so happened to volunteer, leaving me to serve food
with people I had never met before.
Soon the homeless families
started to walk in and a little girl, around 5 years old, walked up and pointed
to the food I was handing out. I handed her the cold sandwich, wrapped in the
sticky plastic, she nodded in a form of saying thanks, and then walked to join
her family at the large table.
As she walked away I thought of
how much I had. I get to go to one of the top schools in San Diego , I have a great house by the water,
and I have a warm meal every night. Then I thought of how little she had. She
probably didn’t go to school, and this is where she sleeps and eats every day.
It took that little girl to make me realize just how lucky I am.
After that moment I had a change
of heart. Now, I love Madcaps and don’t miss one meeting, I have gotten over
being socially awkward and now have many friends, who I hang out with on a
regular basis. And this year I am sure I will do more than the required 20
hours of philanthropies.
I believe that if you have an open
mind about things you can learn a lot about yourself and the people in your
community, you can make new friends and realize just how lucky you are. I
believe that if you have an open mind to things you can accomplish more and
become a better rounded person. I believe you can make a difference just by
doing one thing you don’t want to do.
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