Magdy's+Essay

I’ve always been amazed by all the people who selflessly gave their time to serve the community and those in need. As this was my first years at school I had no initial intention to join service learning, however after hearing about it during the first week I felt this would be chance to do something honourable. I joined for multiple reasons. One of which of course was to have it on my transcript, but also I really wanted to spend sometime helping other and giving back to my community. I must admit that some of the experiences I have had during service learning trips had such a great impact on and I felt that I gained so much from serving others that it was unfair that I was receiving credit for such things. It all started this year with a trip with the school to the cancer hospital to visit the young children and have iftar with them. Although it was Ramadan and it would require all the people who were fasting to work for 3 hours then go to hospital and there was very little to eat for them there, I was surprised to see so many people come and participate. More impressively and amazingly no one even complained and everyone had a big smile on their face. It was truly amazing and it inspired me even more to go out and help people and showed me that I really shouldn’t have anything to complain about. On that trip I also learned the importance of actually going out in groups and helping others, because our community is in deep need for people to start going out of their comfort zone and their selfish lives and start serving others and helping out in various ways as it is the only way for our community to progress and move forward. Again I can’t stress how beneficial service learning has been for me and how I’m so happy to have joined it, as I have gained experiences over this past year that have changed me One of the things that had the most touching effects on me was during on of my football games at Mokattam with the orphans. I feel it is wrong to refer to them as orphans as they we’re all older than I am and all probably smarter and more deserving of everything I am lucky to have than I am. As I was playing with them I suddenly realized that this was exactly like any other time I had gathered my friends and gone played football and that there was absolutely no difference between us. This made me feel very guilty that I had sometimes felt superior to them. As a result of that guilt I found even more reason to continue serving my community and try to actively make a difference. I really am very happy to have joined service learning as I have learned a very important life lesson that might sound extremely cliché but it’s true. I learned the value of giving and the happiness that comes with it. Every time I went on a service trip I would be very bored on my way there and I would not be looking forward to it at all, however once I would start participating and getting to know those I have come to spend time with I would feel like I would be the one gaining from this encounter not them and I would be so happy. I would feel that my biggest reward was seeing a small child smile because I gave him something or seeing a little child that was shy at first starting to play. And every time we would enter the place where would serve everyone would be so excited and happy that it would greatly inspire me to continue doing this. Overall it was a great year of service and I hope to continue next year. I am very thankful for this opportunity that really had a huge impact on me and I really do hope to find the inspiration and motivation to continue as I would really like to help our community progress and move forward and hope to be able to bring more people into this wonderful habit so that we can actively help others.