Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
As I woke up one Sunday morning, I felt I needed more sleep but had no time to waste. I needed to rush and be at an orphanage no later than an hour. It is my weekly job to volunteer at an orphanage and take care of kids that are just 3 years old or younger. These kids have brought me a definite change in mind and emotion.
I used to think that my life was mundane; it needed a change of stream. I went to school everyday following the same schedule studying for math, geography, and other subjects that I did not think I needed in real life. Sometimes I also thought that my parents were overprotective. They needed me in their sight. I could not be out late nor go out with my friends as I pleased without letting my parents know where I would be. It was not a fun life with my parents around to harass me. The thought of my parents and my humdrum life made me feel frustrated and wish that I could be someone else with a more exciting life.
My first few visits to the orphanage were honestly for my extra curricular activities because I needed them for me to get into college. However, after a few visits I started missing those children as I went back home. I was actually looking forward to going back to the orphanage; I needed to go back. The children were just two or three years old and had the most innocent faces on them. They were children who were brought to the orphanage because their parents could not financially provide for them. They had no idea who their parents were and all lived in one small room. Yet, they had the happiest smiles on their faces and did not fear to meet a stranger. They greeted me like they knew me all their lives. As I helped take care of them, mostly just play with them, I felt warmth in the children.
I worried that these children will come of age when they realize that they are different from other kids their age; they grew up in an orphanage without knowing who their parents were which would be a big concern in a child’s life. I wanted to give them all my care and love so they would not envy a parent’s love but I knew that I could not replace the warmth of a mother’s hug or the saccharine of a father’s kiss. It made me sad to think that as I always disliked being disturbed by my mom or my dad these kids did not even get an opportunity to know what it is like to have a fight with a parent.
I tried my best to make up for their emptiness every week, and every week I felt more ashamed to myself. I realized there are other people out there who do not get half the hospitality that I get. While I was complaining about my life and my parents, people with worse situations than me like orphans or people on the streets desire my life. From that moment the world seemed really unfair how some lived with nothing more to wish for while some wished for everything. I wanted to help more than these orphanage kids; I wanted to reach out to the people that are not noticed in the world and help them or at least be of company. Seeing the children grow up made me proud and made me wish they would grow up harmlessly with the help of my effort.
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