Helping others, especially the helpless, like children, helps you find whom you truly are inside. I have helped at an elementary after-school bible study program on Wednesdays for 5 years. I help in the kitchen making food with other women, who all have children in the program. I help not because I have family in the program (even though I do), but because I have discovered a side of me that I did not know was there and I enjoy becoming that person. While helping cook and clean for the kids, I discovered a peaceful part of me that loves cooking and working with kids. I found a part of me that is patient and kind and at peace while doing these things. I never knew that I loved doing such things until I started helping with LOGOs. I enjoy chopping up lettuce for salads and I love helping kids wash their hands before dinner. I love dishing up chili-Frito casserole and wiping down the tables after dinner. I love the hours spent in the hot kitchen on a hot day. I love being with other women doing these tasks. I would never have known that about myself, had I not started helping others.
Helping others helps you in other ways also. You become at peace and forget that you have a final tomorrow, or that doctor’s appointment you just went to. Helping others lets you focus on whom you are helping and not on yourself or the problems that you are having. At the end of February, the program took a two-month break, and a week later I already felt bored and lost. I did not have all the kids to play with and have fun with. I did not have the girls in the kitchen to talk to about problems I could not tell my family. I realize every time there is a break, whether I am busy, whether it is spring, summer, fall or winter, I miss working and giving my time to the kids and the program. I know that when I go to college, the middle school guys that help now will do the same things I do, until they have to leave for jobs or college. Kids now stay and help when they are done with elementary school, for the same reason I did: I could not stay away. Kids will continue to come when they are done, and they will help for as long as they can. I know that when I finish college, I am going to come back and help.
I am glad that I started helping others, I love it; and I will try to continue to do so for many years to come. Helping others helped me find myself. This I Know.