self reflections
⇒ Quarter 3 Community Service Reflection ⇐
Community service is about helping and building community. In community service, you help the community by lending a hand and offering your services to help someone in need or to make a job easier for someone. You build community by earning new acquaintances with the people you work with and/or the person you helped during your hours. It’s all about acting like Jesus as well. You’re doing something to help, just like how Jesus did when people were sick or in trouble. This is why we do community service. We learn what it’s like to be like Jesus.
I helped teach preschoolers about Saint Patrick’s Day at Tiny Tots Pre-school in Daly City’s Library and Recreation. My responsibilities were to observe the kids, help them if they needed it, dry their hands after they washed them before snacks, serve out the snacks, and wash the dishes (which were rainbow plastic dishes and cups) after they were finished eating. First, I helped a little boy named Elijah. He was 5 and very shy. The assignment was to draw a big shamrock on construction paper, then to color in things green and name them. We had a little trouble communicating at first because he was very, very shy, but I managed to get him to talk and have fun whilst doing his work. Next, they washed and, with my help, dried their hands. I also passed out animal crackers in plastic bowls and fruit punch in plastic cups. One of the parents dropped a tray of filled cups, so I helped to clean it up. Finally, the parents and I collected all bowls and cups. I helped clean the dishes and made sure that they were spotless. As a reward for my services, I received a hug from Elijah and took a picture with him as a memoriam. Also, my teacher, Ms. Marie, told me that Elijah never let anyone help him before, but now he had let me help him or even talk to him because I actually tried to help him understand his work.
I chose to volunteer at the Tiny Tots pre-school in Daly City myself. I thought it would be fun to do this because I had gone to Tiny Tots when I was a little kid and had the same teacher. I hadn’t been there in 9 years, so I wanted to go visit and help out with the children. I’m glad I chose to volunteer here because it brought back so many good memories. Just seeing the familiar classroom with its pet birds and fish and indoor mini-playground was so delightful. It made feel like I was learning the alphabet again or re-singing the song about days of the week as a new preschooler.
Sometimes, community service reminds me of when Jesus made the fish and the bread. He was making food to help the community from not starving to death. Community service can be related to this because when you’re volunteering at a place, you’re giving back to the community. Whenever you volunteer, you’re helping the community in some way. There’s always a helpful result wherever you volunteer. When I volunteer at the San Francisco Food Bank, I’m packing foods to help someone that is homeless live another day without starving. When I volunteer at a senior home, I’m helping the elders do something in their time at the senior care, even if they are disabled. Every hour you volunteer, you achieve something that helps another human being, just like how Jesus helped people everywhere he went.
In conclusion, I really want to volunteer here again or at the SPCA. It was so nice to re-live memories of preschool. But I also want to volunteer at the SPCA because I love working with animals. However, I doubt this possibility because there is cat fur everywhere and my eye puffs badly whenever my body encounters cat fur. But I will most definitely be volunteering for at least an hour at Tiny Tots because it was such a great experience. I’m looking forward to complete my service hours next quarter.
Quarter 2 Reflection Essay
What it means to be a volunteer is that you have the power to help. You give out your time just to help someone. You have the ability to brighten someone’s day and to assist them with their needs. It can make someone feel cared for and it lets them know that somebody actually wants to help them. Thus, I completed my hours at Home Sweet Home. My responsibilities were to call out Bingo numbers for the seniors and to pass out food for them.
A very enjoyable interaction I had was with a woman named Loretta. She’s very sweet and kind. I had a long conversation. I learned many things about her and about the senior home. Loretta was taken to the senior home because it was difficult for her to walk up and down stairs in her home. She also had a husband, but he unfortunately passed a few years ago. According to Loretta, the seniors mostly played Bingo, but they could do arts and crafts or read. They also had the freedom to leave the home and go to the mall or do anything else that they desired as long as they had an assistant with them.
The seniors are the ones that benefit from my service. They’re able to have something to do or to put a little twist on their regular activities. Since they do the same things every day, it’s fun to have volunteers because it gives them a different experience every time. I mean, wouldn’t it suck to do the same thing over and over again every single day you stay there? It’ll get incredibly boring! But if no one helped them at all, it would be hard to even do simple tasks. Half of the elders I saw could barely walk or required a wheelchair. Some of them couldn’t talk, had irregular disabilities, or would yell random things at the most unexpected times. I feel bad for them, knowing that they’ve all gone through long-lasting pains. I see that some of them loosen up when volunteers come around to help.
I am similar to the elders because I need help sometimes. I can’t always do things on my own. I know they all have harder problems than me, but sometimes I need help desperately because I can get really frustrated easily. They need lots of help because even eating is a struggle for them. Their old bodies are slowly giving up on them, making everything get even more complicated for them. Knowing that I have the ability to help at least a little bit reassures me that anything is possible. I think their basic days are to wake up, eat, Bingo, eat again, Bingo, free time, clean up and then sleep. I assume this based off of what Loretta told me. “It’s not every day that we get to do something interesting,” she said, “but we know that someone like you can make our day brighter.”
The most important thing I’ll take from this experience is that you should always be willing to help. No matter what, go and help someone who needs it. You never know if it could make someone help another person or change their bad sides. Sounds a bit cheesy, obviously, but a simple deed can really cause a good change of events. It’s really cool that something like that can happen in the world at anytime, any place. The best thing that happened was talking with the seniors. They all had interesting stories to tell. But the most important thing is that the ones who are older have the most experience and may even have stories that are really great.
What it means to be a volunteer is that you have the power to help. You give out your time just to help someone. You have the ability to brighten someone’s day and to assist them with their needs. It can make someone feel cared for and it lets them know that somebody actually wants to help them. Thus, I completed my hours at Home Sweet Home. My responsibilities were to call out Bingo numbers for the seniors and to pass out food for them.
A very enjoyable interaction I had was with a woman named Loretta. She’s very sweet and kind. I had a long conversation. I learned many things about her and about the senior home. Loretta was taken to the senior home because it was difficult for her to walk up and down stairs in her home. She also had a husband, but he unfortunately passed a few years ago. According to Loretta, the seniors mostly played Bingo, but they could do arts and crafts or read. They also had the freedom to leave the home and go to the mall or do anything else that they desired as long as they had an assistant with them.
The seniors are the ones that benefit from my service. They’re able to have something to do or to put a little twist on their regular activities. Since they do the same things every day, it’s fun to have volunteers because it gives them a different experience every time. I mean, wouldn’t it suck to do the same thing over and over again every single day you stay there? It’ll get incredibly boring! But if no one helped them at all, it would be hard to even do simple tasks. Half of the elders I saw could barely walk or required a wheelchair. Some of them couldn’t talk, had irregular disabilities, or would yell random things at the most unexpected times. I feel bad for them, knowing that they’ve all gone through long-lasting pains. I see that some of them loosen up when volunteers come around to help.
I am similar to the elders because I need help sometimes. I can’t always do things on my own. I know they all have harder problems than me, but sometimes I need help desperately because I can get really frustrated easily. They need lots of help because even eating is a struggle for them. Their old bodies are slowly giving up on them, making everything get even more complicated for them. Knowing that I have the ability to help at least a little bit reassures me that anything is possible. I think their basic days are to wake up, eat, Bingo, eat again, Bingo, free time, clean up and then sleep. I assume this based off of what Loretta told me. “It’s not every day that we get to do something interesting,” she said, “but we know that someone like you can make our day brighter.”
The most important thing I’ll take from this experience is that you should always be willing to help. No matter what, go and help someone who needs it. You never know if it could make someone help another person or change their bad sides. Sounds a bit cheesy, obviously, but a simple deed can really cause a good change of events. It’s really cool that something like that can happen in the world at anytime, any place. The best thing that happened was talking with the seniors. They all had interesting stories to tell. But the most important thing is that the ones who are older have the most experience and may even have stories that are really great.