Service is always a great way to learn humility, not matter how short or long of a time you put into it. When you’re doing a good deed, I believe it’s best not to look into how much time you put into something, or how many benefits you’ll recieve from doing something. It’s best to enjoy the experience of helping people who need you, and I think it’s ever more clear when you see the relief and gratitude on someone’s face.

When the semester began, I knew I wanted to help out at the bloog drive again. Partly, I’ll admit I wanted to get one of the required service projects out of the way, but another part was excited to help in any way i could. I worked with the Red Cross three times before, all for blood drives, and I was looking forward to being in use for something I knew.

In high school, I helped out the nurses by aiding those who had given blood. I would talk to them and distract them, especially if they were squeamish yet adamant to help in any way they could. This time however, my job wasn’t nearly as hands-on; instead I was put on the duty of giving donors snacks and drinks as they recovered. It wasn’t the most exciting job, and definitely not the most important, but it was rewarding in it’s own way. If a donor wanted to talk, they did, and if they didn’t want to talk, that was fine too – our jobs were to make sure they were stable enough to leave when they felt ready.

Although I was only able to help out for an hour, it set the tone of my involvement this semester. I ended up not even using the blood drive as one of my required service projects! I instead started volunteering every sunday at the Mosque in Atlantic City, and helped out at the Day of Scholarship for a few hours. However, being able to help in any way that I could was a great lesson and experience!