Helping the Less Fortunate - Essay Example

Needless to say, I learned how to grow up fast and deal with more mature situations while I was at the military school. This is why my teachers noted a remarkable change in my personality when I came back to the public school system for my senior year. I now understand that following the rules, being self-disciplined, and staying out of trouble make for a very peaceful and content life. If I just stay the course this time and leave some of the work to God, I am almost assured of a highly successful future ahead of me.

As an active member of the Bethany United Methodist Church, I believe that all things are possible through God who is my pillar of strength during my trying times. Through the church, I learned that community service is something that helps build character in a person because I gain life experiences that I would not normally gain had I not been attending church. These life lessons are the things that I am kept busy learning during the summer months. I participate in two mission trips every summer.

The first one is in Brooklyn where I assist in caring for kids from low-income housing. It is a gratifying experience because I know that these kids are not leading easy lives, yet they manage to show me a smile when they see me because they know how to find joy and peace even during the darkest moments of their young lives. But the mission trip that I truly look forward to every summer is under the Reach program of our church. It is similar to Habitat for Humanity in the sense that we go to different states every year and help do repairs on houses.

The most memorable repair I assisted in was the building of a wheelchair ramp for an elderly lady's house. The old lady could not help but cry after she saw the beauty of the work we did on her ramp. Her sincere appreciation was truly heart-warming and it made me appreciate everything that I have in life even more. These summer missions have helped me realize that I can be an even better person in the future than I am today. Not to take value away from the good works that I currently do but I know this but the tip of the iceberg.

Since helping the less fortunate is something that makes me extremely happy, I know that I will be doing more in the future to help them overcome their life obstacles, just as they have helped me realize that I can get over my own.