Antonio R., Chaminade Julienne High School
Serving the Greater Good
It was May 2015, there were a 5 groups of students working about, 3 groups were washing and cleaning windows, the other 2 groups were in the grate picking up piles and piles of trash that might have been sitting there for years. There were students complaining of how this service was wasting their time, and there was other students saying at least they got to skip two of their classes for their service and that if all of the students get done early they can hang out with their friends for the rest of the day. These are different aspects of what people think of service, some view as boring and bland because service is something you have to do such as community hours for a grade, and others view service as a fun way of giving back to your community. There are times that I myself I did not enjoy service, but after a few years I found out how to have a great time serving the people of my community.
My first time of doing community service and enjoying so was in 7th grade, our 3 teachers assigned us into 5 groups with 6th and 8th graders, 3 groups were assigned to wash the ground windows on the school building whilst the other 2 groups were assigned to pick trash out of the grates. I myself found the service fun when I was assigned with my friends. We would be in the grates and if we found something interesting we would take the item out and do some funny impressions of what the person have have done with the item. My group ended up first to finish because we noticed people were slacking as they found this not very appealing to them.
After the rest of the groups finished we headed to a park that was absolutely littered with all kinds of garbage. I had challenged my friends to a trash contest, whomever picks up the most trash before we have to head back to the school wins 5$ given from myself. We all raced to the corners of the park, picking up every little piece of paper, cigarette, crushed cans, and pieces of glass hoping to win the contest. My friend Josh ended up winning the contest it had felt like he was carrying 20 pounds of trash with him! All of my friends had a great time while doing service; therefore service can be fun.
Service is never boring as long as you know how to have an enjoyable time doing so. My way of enjoying service was doing the service with my friends. There are many other ways of enjoying service aswell such as doing service for someone you know well, or service that is basically an everyday chore for yourself. Service should be enjoyable no matter what the service is, the only thing to know is how to find a way to do so.