On September 25th Christina Baker Kline was scheduled to speak at Stockton’s Freshman Convocation. From the day I found out in early September, I was ecstatic that I was going to get to meet Mrs. Kline. I absolutely loved Orphan Train and I was excited to hear her perspective on the book. But more than anything I was excited to meet a famous author. I absolutely love book and I had always wanted to go to a book signing, but I never had the opportunity before. But now that a New York Times Bestselling author was coming to my school I wasn’t going to miss it for the world.

When the day finally arrived, I all but ran from my 2:30-4:20 class in F wing (wich of course ran five minutes over time) down to the PAC. I arrived just in time to be seated in one of the last available seats and I watched as the people behind me stood in clusters where ever there was room. I waited anxiously for the presentation to start; the thought of being late to my six o’clock class always at the back of my mind.

After a few minutes waiting and a few short speeches to thank everyone who had made the night possible, Mrs. Kline entered and began her presentation. I learned a lot from her slides, like how the train riders all thought that they were the only train that existed at the time. I found that so interesting for one because it helped me understand part of why Vivian spent so much of her life feeling so isolated from the world: she thought she was the only person to have this kind of experience. For another it really helped me understand how scary and confusing this whole process must have been to a child. With every fact and statistic I learned a little more and got a better understanding of Orphan Train as well as the Orphan Train. Not to mention all of the sweet and heartwarming anecdotes she gave about actual train riders.

Once the presentation had ended, I checked my watch and realized that any hope of getting to my class on time was lost; the only question now was how late was I going to be? A sensible person in my position probably would have gone to class instead of waiting in the enormous line to get Mrs. Kline’s autograph. But I had come there that day with a mission: to meet my first author and get her autograph, and I was going to do it come hell or high water.

I was somewhere in the middle of the book signing line and it took about fifteen minutes for me to get to the front. When I did I told Mrs. Kline how much I loved her book and in addition to asking her to sign my copy of Orphan Train I asked her to sign my writing journal. This, I explained, was something I did whenever I got the chance to meet a speaker/presenter who I found particularly inspiring. I’ve found that looking at their quick messages and remembering what they presented about really helps me get though cases of writers block and helps motivate me to share my writing when I can. She happily agreed, and wrote me a little message telling me to never stop writing, with a small smiling face next to it.

I then rushed to class and apologized to my professor for being 45 minutes late.

On September 27th I joined a group of Stockton students in volunteering at a local animal shelter. The establishment served a refuge to dozens of cats, dogs, and even a few domesticated birds. When we arrived our group of about ten volunteers was split into groups of three and each smaller group was given a job to do, most of which had to do with cleaning the shelter itself. On a normal day the handful of hardworking people employed at the animal shelter have to handle managing the shelter’s finances, caring for the animals’ health and wellbeing, going through endless adoption papers and processes, as well as keeping the building spotless, so we were there to take some of the pressure off of these good people, even if it was something as simple as helping clean.

My group got the task of washing all of the windows and mirrors in the building which was by no means difficult and gave us a chance to explore a little as we worked. We got to see all of the animals poking their noses out to sniff us through the bars as we oohed and aahed over them. Eventually we came to a room that was locked and a few seconds after trying the handle an employee of the animal shelter came out with a two week old pitbull puppy in her arms. She told us the room she came out of was where the more aggressive animals were kept and no unauthorized personnel were allowed in. The puppy in her arms, she told us, had a mother who was aggressive towards people, so the animal shelter workers were in the process of trying to slowly wean the puppies away from their mother’s negative influence to prevent them from being aggressive too. My entire group got to cradle the puppy before his keeper brought him back into the room and we continued our work.

After all of the windows were washed, I got to help hand out cat a dog toys that had been made at the honors experience to the animals in the shelter. As I did, I got to play with all of the kittens and cats who were more than happy to stretch their legs. This little bit of playing may seem insignificant to some people, but in my experience animals are a lot like people. A little bit of kindness means so much to the less fortunate, no matter the species, and because the shelter houses so many animals, some can go a few days with very little one-on-one attention and affection. This bonding time is important for animals, especially the little puppies and kittens. I will admit that after an hour of holding, petting, and playing with these tiny creatures I was trying to figure out where I could hide a cat bed in my tiny dorm.

After we had distributed the cat toys, we moved on to the dogs. In particular there were a few dogs that were wrapped up in an animal hoarding case that was still in court, so they could not be adopted until the case was settled. So we brought them to the big yard outside to run around and play for a little while. We played fetch, tug of war, and sometimes we just ran around with these little balls of energy. Some of the dogs were more laid back; they just stayed in the shade or came up to us and laid on our feet until we pet them. After an hour or so the dogs were tired out and it was time for us to go. We left that day tired, covered in hair, and proud that we could make a difference in the lives of these animals and the kind people that dedicate their time to helping them.

On September the 6th I, along with many other generous Stockton students and faculty, attended Stockton’s annual Day of Service in the hopes of finding an activity that was both fun and linked to an organization that was really meaningful to me. When I arrived at the campus center that morning, I signed in and received a list of different organizations that were at the event. The list was extensive and included many organizations that dealt with many problems in the community from homelessness, to pollution, to animal abuse; all great causes that my friends and I spent a long while before hand debating which one we would choose to support.

However, I did have one charity that had been pressing on my mind for days beforehand: Books Without Borders. This organization holds a special place in my heart because books have played such a huge role in my life. I love to read because somehow reading about these people whom I feel I really know go through terrible time and come through stronger just makes reality seem a little easier. I was so excited to give the amazing gift of knowledge, entertainment and (in some small way) companionship to children who had the same lust for learning I had, but were not fortunate enough to have the opportunities I did.

So I quickly joined the Books Without Borders table and in no time we were trudging past the school to a small field by the Arts and Sciences building where we began unloading and entire storage unit filled to the brim with boxes and boxes of books. Our first task was to take all of these boxes out of the storage unit onto the lawn. This was hot sweaty work, considering the unit conserved all of the sun’s heat from that hot summer day, and some of boxes were so heavily packed with books it took two people to carry them. However, soon all of the books were out and we began sorting them into categories like fiction, biographies, politics, and psychology.

Now I had decided beforehand to do a little something special for my favorite charity and had brought colorful note cards, envelopes, a pen, and tape with me to try out my little project. As I sorted through books I kept my eye out for books I had already read and when I found one (with the permission of my supervisor) I would take a minute and write a little message to the new owner of the book. I would thank him/her for picking the book tell him/her why I loved it (it made me laugh, it made me cry, etc.) then I would ask him/her to give the book a good home and say I hoped he/she had a lovely day. Then I put the note in the envelope and taped it to the inside cover of the book.

This was an absolutely amazing experience and my only hope in doing this is that I 1.) made someone with an extremely hard life have a slightly nicer day, and 2.) that these books inspired at least one child to have a love of learning. I truly believe that if you teach a man to fish he eats for the rest of his life, but if you teach a man to read he can do what he wants to do for the rest of his life.