Personal Reflection For Others

Compassion is learned through experience and seeing those less fortunate; it brings out sympathy because one cannot ignore it when unfortunate people are everywhere.

Compassion impels us to work to alleviate the suffering of our fellow man, to remove ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, and to honor the sanctity of every single person treating everybody, without exception, with justice, equity and respect.

Compassion allows humans to grow and have a hopeful future. In Hiroshima, Mr. Tanimoto showed compassion by urging people to get on a boat to safety. The victims were too weak to get on the boat. However, being selfless, Mr. Tanimoto helped the injured people get on it. This is significant because Mr. Tanimoto assisted the weak people to get on the boat to safety so they’d heal. Thus, through Mr. Tanimoto’s compassion the victims had a hope they’d survive. Furthermore,

My Aunt loved taking us places, she would take us to the mall to get coloring books and toys, and we would also go to the market to get food and to get my brother Bakugans which were popular at the time. She also got us strawberry ice cream, and took us to the park. The park got renovated while we were there so we got to see its transformation from a sad little playground to a giant wooden playscape that contained a ship, two seesaws, four metal swing sets, and a bike path.

This empathy and my awareness of injustice continued to grow over time. I fell in love with service work and continued to go on mission trips each year until I graduated High School. To me, it was what gave my life meaning. While I concede my input for a few weeks every summer would only temporarily treat the symptoms of the population rather than solve the problem, the experience would drive me to pursue a career where I could truly make a difference. I had come to realize that had I been born a different race, ethnicity, or in a different location, my experience would be vastly different. Because of this, I was interested in the people; I wanted to learn who they were, what had made them that way, and where they saw themselves going. I enjoyed working with children the most. They are the ones who still have hope, who have dreams, who do not realize

I volunteered at the Hubbard House, which is a home away from home for people who have family in the hospital or are being treated by the hospital and don’t want to live there, as the hospital is a 5 minute bus ride away. Our job was to serve the residents who were currently housed there, a hot homemade spaghetti and meatballs meal with garlic bread and assorted desserts. We served them as if it were a restaurant and brought smiles to their faces.

Volunteered to serve soup on campus during "Free Soup Day" and also hosted children's activities at the Royal Oaks School Carnival.

Looking back into my childhood I played several roles as a caretaker for my mom. When I

was I helped people find the food that they needed. There were a lot of people that were asking if they could get more of one item and it made me feel bad when I had to tell them no. Some of the people were caught trying to take more than they were supposed to take and it felt sad that these people had to take extras in order to be able to survive.

We assisted the parishioners of the church where we were being housed by helping them complete some of their own projects, including using heavy duty cleaning supplies to remove the mold in the kitchen, replacing the ceiling tiles and replacing the baseboards that had been removed for painting. At Memphis Union Mission we sorted donations of both toiletries and clothing that were to be given out to the homeless in the area. We separated items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner so they could be packaged up and disseminated to those in need. Once the sorting process was completed, we went downstairs to help the pastor serve lunch in their soup kitchen. When we were volunteering at the Refugee Empowerment center, we helped the children of immigrants complete their homework, many of whom were not fluent in the English language. Once their homework had been finished, we taught them a popular game called ninja. At Girls Incorporated we first helped the students to finish their homework and then played some volleyball and kickball with them, a gesture that was well

Ever since I was a child, my mother always put a huge importance on what it meant by taking care of people, whether that would be my family, friends, or those in need of help. At a young age, I never really understood why she made such a big deal out of the idea of having to take care of people. However, as time went on, I came to a realization that I find most satisfaction in my life when I am able to help those in need of help.

receive such help. Their smiles made me realize that I wanted to help others when I grew older.

I love people. The diversity of personalities, interests, and experiences among people intrigues me. I love how different we all are, yet we all have the same yearnings and needs that make us human. This is why I spend some of my time volunteering at the local food pantry. Giving my time here has shaped me and taught me valuable life lessons about loving unconditionally and giving freely. The necessity of these actions has been confirmed in my mind by an enormous challenge I faced in my life, leaving me with a desire to impact lives.

A few summers ago I volunteered in a local church food pantry in my community.

At a young age I had to leave my country and come to the United States in 2004 with my family to start a whole new life. As days and years passed by, I started growing up and understanding life more.Even having to learn a whole new language. I felt like an outcast at first but then I met new people who helped me understand the different lives of one another. This gave me an amazing prescriptive about life, I had all types of amazing feelings seeing all these different people help me out throughout my life. I then wanted to make people feel happy and better about themselves physically and mentally.