When I was in high school, I was one of the most selfish people you could ever meet. I did not care about others and had no interest in anything unless I could directly gain something in return. I know it is a horrible trait, but in my defense I was a teenager. I have grown since then, but it took awhile for me to become the person I am today. <\/p>\n
In America, students are strongly encouraged to do volunteer work. Of course, since it was optional, I had absolutely no desire to voluntarily give up my free time when I could have been doing something far more appealing to my younger self. However, volunteer work looked really amazing on college applications. <\/p>\n
For students wanting to enter university in the United States, we create applications. They are similar to a resume and we send them out to various institutions<\/u> hoping we will be accepted. In our applications, they provide basic information and also extracurricular<\/u> activities. One popular activity was volunteer work. <\/p>\n
Therefore, because I could gain something directly from this, I joined the volunteer club. In my school it was called Key Club. It was a national organization with branches all throughout America. They boasted<\/u> about service to community and building character. I couldn\u2019t have cared less. All I wanted was to put it down in my application for college. <\/p>\n
Upon joining the club, most of the other members seemed hesitant. It was notoriously known throughout the school that I was lazy, and they were surprised I was even at the meeting. They were probably either very skeptical<\/u> or curious. Perhaps it was a mix of both. Either way, they actually allowed me to join. However they were not very optimistic about the situation. <\/p>\n
Perhaps this was where karma set in. During one such volunteer assignment, I had to shovel horse manure<\/u> during a parade. Not only was this a parade in my city, but my classmates were either marching or watching the parade so they could see me in full glory. There I was in a bright blue t-shirt, holding a shovel and chasing after horses to pick up after them. Not very glamorous, I know! <\/p>\n
Looking back, it was a humbling experience. However, my high school self thought otherwise and I remember spending the entire time moaning and groaning. I also vaguely remember yelling at an older man that was trying to give me tips on how to hold my shovel. I was an angry and emotional teenager and I am thoroughly embarrassed by my actions, but the past is the past. <\/p>\n
Now, I find volunteer work more rewarding. I enjoy helping others, and I find happiness in simple things like making other people smile. Yes, I have grown immensely<\/u> since then and I do appreciate that I was never kicked out of the club. <\/p>\n
Would I do volunteer work now? Perhaps. I am at a different place in my life, but if I had more time I would love to join some sort of organization that helps people. <\/p>\n
Evalyn<\/p>\n
<\/br>
\nVocabulary<\/b><\/p>\n
institution (n) - an organization started for a religious, educational, professional or social purpose
\nextracurricular (adj.) - used to describe extra activities (such as sports) that can be done by students that are not part of the regular schedule of classes
\nboast (v) - talk with a lot of pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities
\nskeptical (adj.) - not easily convinced; having doubt or reservation
\nmanure (n) - solid waste from farm animals (that is used to make soil better for growing plants)
\nimmensely (adv.) - to a great extent; extremely<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was in high school, I was one of the most selfish people you could ever meet. I did not care about others and had\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}