Brianna Catania
Professor Juniper Ellis
EN 101.16
11 September 2013
Helping Others
Do you know what it feels like to know you are
helping others in need? It is such a triumphant feeling to witness smiles on
children’s faces and knowing I have made a difference in their lives. In high
school, I took part in many community service activities. The service that
impacted me most was when I set up a Christmas party, at my high school, for
children battling cancer. Their faces lit up as we handed out gifts to them and
played Christmas music as they ate the dinner we cooked. My experience was
emotionally powerful because I had made a difference in these children's lives.
They could take a break from the chemo and radiation and enjoy being a normal
child, laughing and smiling with others. In Robert Frost's "Mending
Wall," Jill McDonough's "Accident," Frances E.W. Harper's
"Learning to Read," and Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach's "The Service
of Faith and Promotion of Justice in Jesuit Higher Education," people united and help others no matter what skin
color, gender, ethnicity, or class they were classified. Loyola provides its
students with community service opportunities that many students take part in.
I think that stressing the importance of community service on campus is a great
way to attract students to help people in need.
At
today's event, there was a speaker named Stephen Graham Jones. He described
himself as a Native American. Jones read an excerpt from his book Discovering
America. He mentions that when he lived in Florida, he met woman who said she
had never seen an Indian before. Another time he mentioned that he got a ride
from a truck driver and the truck driver asked him what kind of Indian he was.
He replied by saying he is a Blackfeet Native American. The Texas man welcomed
him with open arms. This encounter was evidence of the collide of two cultures
and the acceptance and unity of them. Jones discussed why he wrote his book
Zombie and helped the audience understand what he really meant by the word
"zombie." "Zombies caution us to stay away from dead things,
zombies express death," he said. It's the inner fear many have, they are
caught up in something and don't see the importance in the world. Some have
difficulty accepting others and their differences.
Different trees came together and become
friends in Frost's "Mending Wall." Two different trees, one a pine
tree and one an apple tree, are separated by a wall. The apple tree will never
get across the wall to the pine tree's side, but the cracks in the wall make it
close enough for them to communicate with each other. Even though nature
repairs the wall as it breaks, it doesn’t stop the trees from becoming friends.
This poem displays unity between the two trees as they interact with each other
despite their differences.
Even people who speak different languages can
comfort and help one another. In McDonough's "Accident," two women
have been in a small accident. They both blow the accident out of proportion
and immediately begin to yell and curse at each other. They soon realize there
is no damage to either of their cars and stop arguing. One of the women cannot
speak English well and begins to cry. The other woman asked if she was okay, and
hugs her to comfort her. She showed compassion towards the other woman and even
though she didn’t really know her, she still made sure she was okay and was
comforted. This relates to Christmas party my class mates and I hosted for the
children suffering from cancer. They needed to be comforted, but also to be
distracted from the treatments and pain they had to endure.
Even during slavery, the north came together
with the south and taught slaves how to read. In Harper's, "Learning to
Read," Northerners sent teachers to teach slaves how to read. The person
in this poem mentioned that she is 60 years old. She didn't allow the
discouragement of the Rebs to stop her from continuing to learn how to read.
After she had learned to read, she became successful, even buying herself a
cabin. She describes how she felt like a queen. With the help of others, she
became a successful and bright woman. This poem relates to my service because
with the help of my classmates and I, the children felt no different than any other
child. They may feel different every single day, like slaves did, but for one
day, these children were no different. They were like every other healthy
child.
As
a Jesuit University, how can we help the poor and homeless? In Fr. Peter-Hans
Kolvenbach's "The Service of Faith and Promotion of Justice in Jesuit
Higher Education," it is discussed that education should help discover the
vocation of life in a Jesuit University. It must be a place where catechism is
embraced and studied. Dean Brackley questions, “Shouldn’t service of some kind
among poor and suffering people be required of all students at our
institutions?” Can this be started up by studying abroad in poor countries? How
can we make the Jesuit education the best it can possibly be? By embracing the
catholic religion, Jesuit students open their arms to poor people. We can all
reach out to less fortunate people and show them our support and love.
In each of these works, different people from
different backgrounds, genders, and races have all helped one another in
different, but important ways. All the works displayed a form of unity as well.
These works relate to my service and Jesuit education because I too have helped
people in need. As a Jesuit institution, Loyola provides its students with many
community service opportunities that help the underprivileged. My many
different experiences with community service have opened my eyes to the
hardships in people’s lives and Loyola has informed me of the many ways I can
help.
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