One of my life goals is to constantly try to live in the moment, the now. At Lafayette, it can be a little difficult to maintain that mentality when everyone and everything around me is constantly pushing towards graduation and my future. However, being back in Mississippi centers me again, and allows me to get back to what matters most to me: making a difference.
I’ll admit, a few coats of paint and some sanding might not seem like much to some people, and at first it didn’t to me either. Experience changed my mind. To me, community service is about the relationships you form. Whether it be stopping to say “Hi, how are you today?” to a cashier in Walmart, or finding out what motivates full time volunteers down here, or speaking to the owner of the home you’re working on, there is an opportunity to create a connection everywhere we turn. To truly make a difference, I believe you have to ignite a passion in another person. As a team leader, I hope I can do this with my team; but as a human being, I hope I can do this with everyone I meet. I know that I am only one person, but I believe in the potential for change and I believe I have the ability to enact it.
There I go on the future again, back to the now. In Mississippi, life is on a different pace. We have goals for the day and tasks to complete, but time escapes us, and its an amazing feeling. I can get grounded again in what’s most important to me: forming those relationships and trying to make a difference. Right now, all I have to worry about is how I can make someones world a little better tomorrow and maybe a few coats of paint are all they need, or maybe an ear to listen, or maybe a simple hello. Whatever it is, it starts with me, and it starts now.