Community Service

Ever since middle school, students have learned about community service. Teachers, parents, or any other type of authority figure have said they encourage it or think it's a good idea. On Wednesday in class, we were given different places to go. Some places included soup kitchens, G.I.V.E, nursing homes, etc. Every Sunday when I was in 8th grade, I would go to Sunday school. In order to receive conformation, we had to do at least four hours of community service. Since our class was big, we were split into groups of four and each group was given a place to go. My group had to go to a nursing home in Libertyville. We could serve ice cream or help with bingo out in the lobby. I got to serve ice cream and spend time with some elderly at the home. It was a lot of fun. Most of the elderly were nice and had an open mind while some others were bitter and thought it was a bad idea to get to know them. Not only did I get to know the elderly, but the staff were pretty nice too. Whenever we needed something, they did whatever it took to make us comfortable. I would definitely do it again because I love getting to know people. However, now that I'm a little older, I've found some other community service to do, which is at my mom's work, Winchester Hospital. Next week, I will be monitoring bingo every Tuesday and Wednesday night at 6:30. It will be for about an hour or two and my mom says the people there are very sweet, so I'm really excited. I like trying new things, so this will be a good experience for me. Doing community service is such a rewarding experience, and the fact that so many people are willing to do it is amazing. When doing community service, you're applying sociology to your life. How? In sociology, we also talked about having a sociological mind and imagination. When someone does community service, they're experiencing things they never have before, or it's something they have done before but find it fun. It's about keeping an open mind and seeing all the options community service has. You get to see things in a different perspective. Like for example, if you volunteer at some type of soup kitchen or some type of nursing home, you'd realize how good we have it. People take a ton of things for granted - money, clothes, etc. But what would happen if all the things we had, all the things we love, suddenly just disappear? How would we feel then? I've learned to be thankful for what we have and help those in need. Some people would kill for what we have, and just looking through their point of view is something we should do on a daily basis. Think about other people before you say, 'I wish I didn't have this!' ..or something along those lines.