The Power of Community Service :: Community Service Essays

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill "If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way." - Buddha In 2014, I traveled to New Orleans for a National Youth Gathering. Some 30,000 students and advisers donned orange t-shirts and fanned out across the city to serve. Our group was assigned the task of clearing roadsides and medians. We spent the day picking up trash and removing cat claw, an invasive and difficult weed. It was the kind of work most of us took for granted because it was something we would do at home. I remember being shocked at the number of people who stopped, rolled down their car windows, and said thank you. Regular yard work that seemed so insignificant to us made a big difference to them. We all had something to contribute and in turn were transformed by the experience; we gave our labor and the people of New Orleans showed us amazing hospitality. For me this reciprocal effect is the most transformational of community service. The more I give and serve, the more I find my life enriched by sharing with others. Community service is part of my life, something ordinary rather than extraordinary, part of life’s journey rather than a goal, destination or high school graduation requirement. As long as I can remember service to others was modeled and encouraged by my family and teachers. To say how I have been transformed in past tense paints an incomplete picture because I am still learning and growing, both being shaped by the process of service and shaping the process by which I serve. This much I can say with certainty: we all have something to give, and a life of service expands one’s world exponentially and unexpectedly. It is easy to feel too small to make a difference as only one of more than seven billion people on this planet. Even the smallest candle is capable of giving light, and when myriad tiny candles burn together a room, a life or a cause can turn into a conflagration of hope and change. The simplest action can initiate a ripple effect that spreads around the world. What I can never hope to do alone may be possible with the shared efforts of others. The Power of Community Service :: Community Service Essays "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill "If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way." - Buddha In 2014, I traveled to New Orleans for a National Youth Gathering. Some 30,000 students and advisers donned orange t-shirts and fanned out across the city to serve. Our group was assigned the task of clearing roadsides and medians. We spent the day picking up trash and removing cat claw, an invasive and difficult weed. It was the kind of work most of us took for granted because it was something we would do at home. I remember being shocked at the number of people who stopped, rolled down their car windows, and said thank you. Regular yard work that seemed so insignificant to us made a big difference to them. We all had something to contribute and in turn were transformed by the experience; we gave our labor and the people of New Orleans showed us amazing hospitality. For me this reciprocal effect is the most transformational of community service. The more I give and serve, the more I find my life enriched by sharing with others. Community service is part of my life, something ordinary rather than extraordinary, part of life’s journey rather than a goal, destination or high school graduation requirement. As long as I can remember service to others was modeled and encouraged by my family and teachers. To say how I have been transformed in past tense paints an incomplete picture because I am still learning and growing, both being shaped by the process of service and shaping the process by which I serve. This much I can say with certainty: we all have something to give, and a life of service expands one’s world exponentially and unexpectedly. It is easy to feel too small to make a difference as only one of more than seven billion people on this planet. Even the smallest candle is capable of giving light, and when myriad tiny candles burn together a room, a life or a cause can turn into a conflagration of hope and change. The simplest action can initiate a ripple effect that spreads around the world. What I can never hope to do alone may be possible with the shared efforts of others.

Man Crazy by Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates, a critically acclaimed story teller of our time, now with her new novel â€Å"Man Crazy† is ready to amaze us for the last time with her unique style of writing. Man Crazy, unlike the traditional kind of novel, will surely suite one person’s taste of thrill, suspense, and excitement. The novel showed some of the darkest side of being a woman. It is depressing in a way but will truly catch your emotion, you will be stunned, astonished, and will be surprised of new discoveries in human behaviors. The author used the main character, Ingrid Boone, to show what most women experienced in their every day life. Most part of the novel will make you uneasy, it is a collection of horrifying, sickening, and traumatic events in a women’s life. Through this unusual style of writing, the author was able to unmasked several mysteries residing in every man, especially women. Female reader will surely relate their experiences to what the main character have experienced in the novel. In our time where women are given equal rights, the novel contents are shocking in a way because it showed that women are still abused intentionally or unintentionally in our society. The story sets on the city of New York where a young and beautiful mother named Chloe Boone with her daughter Ingrid are hiding from a vet veteran Luke. Luke is Ingrid’s father who has been abusive to Chloe. Since they left Luke, Ingrid have been longing for a love of a father. Growing without a father, seeing her mother work to death as a prostitute, and living a miserable life without true friends, Ingrid have become destructive to herself to overcome her misfortune in life. She looks at her self as the ugliest person in the world that is why she do unusual things just to change her appearance. There have been too much scratching, too much picking of pimples, and other things which almost destroyed her young body. Deprived of man’s love, that what’s Ingrid is that is why she let different boys to abuse her through sex, drugs, and alcohols. Even the satanic cult has passed through her life that almost led her to her death. The cult abused her in ways hard to imagine. She has been raped, beaten, starved, and left to die. These traumatic events have led her to spend two years in rehabilitation. There, she has found the love she has been looking for. She has found it in one the psychiatrist who attended to her therapy. After her sad journey to life, Ingrid has been able to continue living and heal her broken heart. â€Å"It's the men who treat you like shit you're crazy for. For only they can tell you your punishment is just. † and â€Å"This is not the testimony I would give to the police, and at the trial. This is the secret testimony only you may know. † excerpt from the novel which clearly tells you what the author wants the reader to learn in her novel. (Muldoon) Ingrid, the main character, is the â€Å"tick†. Like the tick, Ingrid is full of insecurities; she is ugly as a tick. Like a tick, she suffers discriminations; she lives in a harsh world. Her transformation is caused by her environment. People around her as well as the events happening have caused her to become what she is. She is molded by violent and unfair world but that the same world has help her recovered and lived life as the others do. To sum up, the novel is entertaining, shocking, and worth reading. Most critique will agree that the piece showed Oates’ expertise, passion, and superb talent. It is evident in the novel how the author becomes unconventional in her own ways. She has a very deep expression on women and their experiences. The author, with her craft, has truly made an impression that novel has many faces. She took the risk of having this story be the tool to expose women’s deepest secret. This secret is hunting them but through this novel, they have the chance to face it and admit to themselves that such things really happen in life.

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