Giving is Receiving!

I believe that if you want to see a change in this world, then it has to start with YOU!  I remember the first time I ever was involved in community service; it was at a recreation center.  I recall entering this red brick covered building, but all I can hear was shouting when I walked through the double doors.  As I proceeded, there was a massive amount of small children running around in the gym.   They were screaming at the top of their lungs of excitement.  “What am I doing here?” I thought to myself.  I was fifteen years old and being with children wasn’t an excitement to me.

As a group, we started arranging games for the children to play.  The children were separated into different sections of the gym.  I was standing on the outside of one the two lines that were made for the activity and I felt this gentle small soft touch on the palm of my hand.  When I looked over, it was a little girl with red shorts and white sleeveless top with these cute little roses on them.  She just blankly stared at me as she reached for my hand.  So, I held her hand anyway and escorted her back to the line.  As time passed, new games were played and children rotated to a different activity.   Throughout the day, I started to have a trail of little girls following me everywhere in the gym.  Why?  I had no clue.  All they wanted to do was to stay attached to my hip.  I resulted in just playing little games with them in a little circle, my circle continued to grow.  As our instructors announced it was time to depart, the children hugged me so tight that I literally dropped to the brown laminate floor.  At that moment, I felt this weird feeling in my heart.  It was a beautiful.  It took quite some time to get the girls off of me with help from the instructors.  As I walked away, tears shed from some of the girls.  Suddenly, I didn’t want to leave.

As we were escorted back into the yellow bus, my instructor asked me, “Jessica, How do you feel after this experience?” “Great!” I shouted.  I was actually speechless, but yelled something out, out of respect.  In reality, it made me realize that these children enjoyed my company.  They loved to have someone to play around with him or her for so long.  They longed for LOVE!  It was that moment when I realized giving was one of the best feelings I ever had in my life!  So, I persevered through adulthood to fit community service/volunteering in my hectic schedule to help people who have that void in their life.  It is the best memory they will ever have.  In return, I don’t want anything, but just to see the smiles on their faces!