Allison B., Kettering Fairmont High School
Helping Others
For as long as I can remember, my parents have argued about who works the hardest at their jobs. Although my father would insist that it was him, he would secretly tell me when my mother was not around that he really did not work that hard. My father hires people for his company and loves helping people find jobs that improve their lives. He has fun almost every day and feels like that along with helping others keeps it from feeling like work. Until a couple of months ago, I did not really understand what he meant.
My church collects food for our food pantry and once a month on ¨Third Thursday” members of the church deliver the food to the needy in our local community. When my grandmother asked me to help a few months ago, I have to admit, I was not very excited about spending the day loading and delivering the food. It did not take long for that to change. After delivering the food to the first family and seeing the joy on their faces, it quickly became a lot more fun and felt a lot less like work. I never realized how much helping these families would bring joy to me.
Now I look forward to Third Thursday more than any other day each month. I have fun with my friends, I love going to school and playing sports, but none of those have been as fun for me or brought me as much pleasure as the work I put in every Third Thursday. Collecting and loading food, delivering it to different neighborhoods and carrying it all into different homes might sound like work to some kids. It sounded like work to me when my grandmother first asked me to help. The fun that I have doing it has made me want to get more involved in this type of work. I have learned that helping others through work can be fun and most of all, it has taught me so much about others and about myself.
I now really understand what my father means when he says that he never really feels like he is working because he has so much fun helping people and making their lives better. Unfortunately for my father, that also means that my mom was right all along. She really does work harder than him.