1.Reflection+Essay

Reflection Essay

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” In this quote, by Mahatma Gandhi, it is made evident that service to others is the best way to give back to your community and help others. I’ve lived in Cairo, Egypt all my life and though I am aware of the dreadful amount of poverty and lack of education there is in this country, I never really did anything to make a difference. Though my parents help others every month by providing certain individuals with education and other service deeds, I never personally did anything. I’ve been living in my own bubble for most of my life completely oblivious to the unjust issues going on around me. Millions of people starve every single day while I am at school complaining about tests and quizzes. Millions of people suffer everyday due to poor wages and lack of jobs while I am out with my friends having a good time. I began to realize how lucky I am to be so privileged and fortunate and I almost felt like it isn’t fair. What makes me so special? Why are other sixteen-year-old girls working so hard to help provide their families with food to get them through the day? I then realized however that all I can really do is just be thankful for everything I have and to start helping others as much as possible. I started by taking on a project to help educate young children. By starting Service Learning, I began to see changes in my self academically and personally; I further reflected on my project and began to see the bigger picture.

Firstly, by attending Service classes, I began learning new academic skills. I learnt about the subject of Service and the difference between community service and service learning. Community Service is simply the good deeds an individual does to help the community while Service Learning also teaches you about the effects Service has on the community. We learnt how even the littlest things make an impact. Through watching various movies, such as Mother Teresa, we learnt how sometimes not every one is for helping others because of sickness’ one can acquire or because sometimes you may not be accepted or wanted in another community however the importance of perseverance and sticking to a project is essential. Through learning these traits our knowledge on the subject became expanded and we began to be able to solve problems and make decisions. I brought a group of girls together so that we can go teach underprivileged children every Saturday for a couple of hours and they were immediately on board. We worked together and strived to have success. When we came across problems we adequately tried to solve them as best as possible. For example, we learnt patience was an issue with a lot of the children so we learnt that we had to adjust the amount of time we spend on a certain subject. We also learnt that many of the children were on different levels academically so we had to split ourselves up to help teach the children and try to get them all on the same level if possible.

Moreover, I began to see developments in myself. I began to enjoy helping others and every time we finished a class I felt as though I accomplished something today. The feeling of helping others is indescribable. It made me think that selfless good deeds really are invigorating. I now felt like I had a civil responsibility as a person to help others and that I cannot stop until I accomplish what I want. Though we did face even more challenges I began to change as a person and become more patient and open-minded. I realized that maybe these children are so unfortunate which is maybe why they are not able to pay attention for long periods of time or maybe that’s why they did not have a problem with all yelling out at the same time. We took our teaching one step at a time, first learning the alphabet, then mathematics and lastly perhaps the most important trait of all, the ability to communicate with one another. At the beginning of the year since the children did not really know one another they did not communicate and boys and girls were definitely divided up. Towards the end of the year however, after we practiced a couple skits in English they became much more comfortable with one another.

I also was able to reflect on the project itself. We were able to improve the quality of our service by coming more prepared to each class and providing the children with supplies. I do feel like we made a difference in the children’s lives. We taught them new English skills, though they are basic they will still help them and we also taught the children math skills and got to a relatively difficult level. I feel like their characters are more developed and the children are now able to communicate better not only with one another but with other people in there community which will ultimate help the children get jobs and be remember as a person.

Through the acts of Service I have done this year I feel like I can see the bigger picture. I am more aware about the conditions people are living in and the level of poverty there is in Egypt. Now that I am aware I can further spread my experiences and maybe help influence others to help out the community as well. I feel like I now want to launch bigger service projects and help out a lot more people. I want to help make a difference whether it is by campaigning or simply spreading awareness (facts & figures)

I definitely want to pursue Service Learning at least throughout the rest of high school. I’d also like to come up with a very big project to teach unfortunate children. Im not sure what the future brings but hopefully, I will continue on learning more and more about Service Learning and will continue on working to help the community and better the lives of others, even if its just simply putting a smile on someone’s face.