Hello everyone,
I'm Huong, however I go by Hillary. I'm from Vietnam. I'm a sophomore student in Computer Animation. This is my first blog about my awesome spring break trip in Chicago with amazing friends. Hope you will enjoy my story as I will try my best to blog everyday.
Today was the first day of our service. It went so well that I could not believe that I had this experience with totally new friends, including international and domestic students. We had a good time together for the pass 3 days, everyone was so nice and friendly that I was so surprised that I had not had much good exprience with different friends on campus through the pass 2 years. Although we have different majors, backgrounds and culture, it seems like we are united as one. My story starts from here.
As today went by, I have learnt 3 new lessons that I believed it can barely learn or find them in any books. First of all is teamwork. As I said above, I was impressed by how 15 students can together work productively and excitingly for the good reason, helping the society. In spite of the language barrier, we all speak the same language in out hearts as supporting Saint James Food Pantry to help the homeless people. We are from China, Vietnam and America but everything went so smoothly and the smiles were all on our faces everytime. A hardworking student can do lots of things but with 15 hardworking students, you can expect more from us. We were divided into 3 groups to arrage diapers, hygiens items, food cans.etc; clean the area and sort out different food bags. At the beginning, it was confusing and frustrating as we were new to the work. However, we got better and more productive as we could slowly see the outcome we were getting closer. All the bags were collected nicely and well-organized. As we were doing that, we were singing and enjoying every moment together which just reminded me of the beginning scene of Frozen when all the guys chanting a song while collecting the ice. Isn't it cool? Or aren't we like High school musical. Lol.
The coolness doesn't stop at there. The second lesson that I learnt from today service was getting to know someone. You can't judge anyone with their appearances just like judging a book by its cover. I really agreed with this statement as today I made 15 new friends which it had not happened before in my life. I'm usually quite and shy to strangers or new classmates. However, I found it easy and interesting to meet this awesome group of friends. For the first time I heard that people said I was hilarious and funny when I always compare people with cartoon characters as well as I found that a student in Public Relation or in Jounarlist can be really outgoing and super smart. Furthermore, I bet you guys will get jealous at how can I get a chance to meet new friends who are a cute American girl really into Chinese culture or a little girl who is coffee addicted and funny or 2 girls who are really energetic and can get super hyper whenever the music is on. Awesome right? It is not done yet. I felt like we were getting closer pretty fast as we shared the worries when one of us getting sick. In addition, as you know how an Asian girl can get any cute, right? I'm pretty sure you want to know more about our leader, Ruiling. She will be the happiest girl you want to spend a day with no matter how sad you are.
The last but not least is the lesson about Consideration. As we were doing the service today, we figured out how the people at the food pantry really take care of their clients just like they take care of their families. Loving your family and your friends are one of the missions in one life, but to love and to care people who are not your relative and homeless and hungry in your area is another missions that not as easy as we think. Giving food out free is not enough, but just like we want to feed our families well, we all want to get the best and the healthiest food for them. Mrs. Kathy, Saint James Food Pantry director, taught us that priceless lesson as helping others we can also help ourself to learn new thing and create a better society. Even though today we just did a small thing as we sorted food, I felt like I was a part of the society I'm living in. As we did a small job, we created a bigger affect like how the Egyptian pyramid was made from thousands of small cut stones. In brief, I learn how to love and care of people around me. A society can be just one individual after all, therefore, if we can we should help the others to make it stronger.
In conclusion, in the short time, I could not be any happier as I have learnt so many new things as well as made new friends. I appreciate all the work of everyone today to make it come to success. I wish I could bring my good experience back to Springfield to connect all the students on campus to different cultures as well as spread more love around people. But the story will soon be more interesting through the trip. I hope I can get more good experience and share with everyone.
It's me when we were arraging the diapers. Have much fun!
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