A Service Reflection

What did I learn from serving others?

During my service experience this year I discovered a few things. Basically, My service was split up into two parts, the resale shop, and the Forum retirement community.

I worked with the CCSC (Christian Community Service Center) to help raise money at their resale shop. There, I reorganized picture frames. Lots and lots of picture frames. So many picture frames did I organize that I became an expert on a great variety of frames. Big frames, little frames, wide frames, tall frames, and all sorts of broken frames. Great heaps of frames! All piled up and organized by yours truly. But the real lesson I learned at the Sunshine Resale Center was not of frames. I learned about self sacrifice. The other workers at the shop were all volunteers. They were all elderly and retired: that had all the freedom in the world really, but they chose to spend it helping people. They were some of the most friendly and happy people I had ever met. They smiled with customers and laughed with each other in a sort of wise and worldly way. They were happy, And feel that it was because they new what they were doing was good. The resale center sells donations brought to it by generous people. The profits (usually from one to two thousand dollars daily as I saw on the records) are donated to the CCSC relief center which provides food, clothing, and support for families and persons in need. Knowing this, all the volunteers are more than happy to do their work because they are satisfied with the knowledge that they have done a very good thing. That is the kind of person I hope to be when I am that age, someone who can find joy in helping others.

At the Forum I learned about two things, the importance of tolerance and living your life in a way that you can be proud of. There were many different kinds of old folks at the retirement home. I was assigned to the section reserved for those in the most disabled condition. Those that couldn't remember anything, who couldn't speak, who couldn't eat normally. But they were very much still people. They all had personalities and traits that made them all unique. The activity director that I worked with was well suited for her job. She was very kind and understanding. She helped all these elderly men and women participate in games and activities. Things that keep them thinking and operating, she explained, they help them stay alive longer. Some of these people were very hard to work with however. But this lady never became frustrated. She understood the problems that age can bring, and all the frustration that comes with it. She put herself in their shoes and used that knowledge to cooperate with them. she was tolerant, and very well respected for it. I also learned something about the way that I would like to go through life. You see, many of these old folks were kind and friendly, they had obviously gone through their lives as happy people, content with many of the decisions they made. However some of these people were not that same way. Their was one lady who I particularly felt bad for. She was grumpy and negative, and from what I could tell, she had always been that way. I have no right to assume that really, but if I had to guess, I would say that she had gone through life the way she wanted and when she was done, she was unsatisfied by it. I do not want to be consumed with regret when I am old and tired. I want to be able to be happy and kind to the volunteers that come and help me when I am in a retirement home. That is why I want to make good decisions in my life that God would approve of. Because in the end, does anything else really matter?