“It is not enough to know; we must turn what we know to account. It is not enough to will; we must do it.” — Goethe
Getting up off the couch and into the car in the dead of winter was not something I was looking forward to. At nine years old, venturing down to the heart of the city with my family to volunteer at the soup kitchen for my brother’s youth group was something I didn’t fully understand. As we traveled down into the musty, broken down building, I grabbed my mom in fear. Venturing through the heavily rusted doors, and down the dirty steps, we arrived at the kitchen. What we saw there totally blew my mind. Futuristic ovens and vast countertops filled the kitchen, and seemed to go on as far as the eye could see. My family and I got to work and followed the meal recipe we were to make for the people who would soon be arriving. Baking and whipping, tossing and stirring so busily, I didn’t realize that the next thirty minutes would forever change my life.
When we were done baking, the strong aromas of lasagna and bread filled the air so palpably, it was if they were telling our noses that our work was complete. My parents, brother, and I transported the food out into the dining area where there were already a few people filing in to eat. As I set down the bread and proceeded to go back into the kitchen, I stopped in the doorway and turned around, watching a man at a table about fifteen feet away. Because of my age and naiveté, I couldn’t completely grasp why the man was wearing a tattered jacket and cloth so shredded around his feet, that it couldn’t really be classified as shoes. His face was covered with a mask of dirt and his head hung in defeat. As I stared at him for another minute from the doorway, the man seemed to notice my glances and forced out a little smirk in my direction. I smiled and quickly ventured into the kitchen behind my mother. She told me that we were all done with our job of preparing the dinner, and the next family would serve the food.
As we climbed back up the tattered steps and into our padded car, I was deeply confused. After a couple of minutes of silence, I asked my mom why the man was wearing such bad clothes and shoes. It was her response that has since consumed much of my thoughts about life and how cruel it can be. When my mom explained to me how some people were more fortunate then others I began to realize for myself how lucky I truly was. Of course my parents and grandparents always told me I had a good life, but I never saw the other side of the scale. I never knew that there were over 45 million people, in the United States alone, living out in the cold without blankets or food and living below the poverty line, according to the US Census Bureau. Sometimes I wonder if I really knew this deep down, but was so caught up in the essence of childhood that I didn’t take the time to fully comprehend the situation.
When reality actually set in about poverty and the less fortunate, it was at that moment in time that I decided for myself that I was going to do something about it. From that point in my young life, I have learned from my parents and family that helping people and giving back to the community is an important part of life. When I was young, my mom and I would help out at our church star program every December. Poor families who needed some help getting food and who didn’t have money for gifts were given the opportunity to ask for one special gift that a parishioner would buy and return to the church to be given away to the needy at Christmas time. As I helped to pack up the gifts and the boxes of food and toothpaste, socks, toothbrushes, and mittens, I realized that the people who were receiving these gifts were going to be the happiest people around, not because they had presents, but because they had food, their families, and the reality that other people in the world cared enough about them to help them out. When you have hardly anything, I bet you don’t take anything for granted. I really owe a lot of my ambition to my parents. They were always there teaching me good values, how to treat others, and how to help out other people, because those are the things in life that truly have worth.
Because I realized the value of my life, I have been able to live for all it is worth. I am propelled by my own ambitions and goals and not my parents or society. Since that life-changing day at the soup kitchen, I have always tried my best in school because I realized that there would always be people in the world without the opportunity of a good education. If for nothing else, I decided that because I have the chance to get a quality education, I would take it for all it’s worth. I feel that throwing away my education, or not doing my best in school would be letting myself, and everyone without the opportunity to go to school, down.
Throughout my teenage years I have worked at becoming an active member within the community. I do it because I love being able to touch someone’s life, even if it’s only in a miniscule way. Every Sunday around Christmas time for ten weeks, there is a basketball league for developmentally disabled children. Just an hour a week gives these kids, who may not have the opportunity to play basketball unless we help them, a chance to play. I know a lot of people who might find this a bother or wouldn’t even consider it, but it is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I can’t think of any better way to spend my time then seeing a smile on a child’s face after he or she dribbled down the court for themselves the first time, or their happiness when the crowd is cheering wildly after they make a basket. There was one little kid who I particularly remember. His name is Ryan and he is developmentally disabled. Each Sunday as I walked into the gym of the YMCA, Ryan would run up to me and grab my hand. Ryan was a little shy at first, but by the end of the league he broke out of his shell, becoming very talkative and outgoing. On the last day, which happened to be in late December, Ryan came up to me and gave me a big hug. When his dad rolled up next to him in his wheelchair, Ryan handed me a small stuffed animal as a Christmas present. His dad thanked me for ten minutes, telling me how much I influenced his son’s life and got him excited about basketball. I told him that it was my pleasure, and I learned as much from him as he did from me. It was truly an amazing experience because I was able to experience first hand what making a difference in someone’s life really means.
When I was a child my parents practically had to rip me off the couch to help out at the soup kitchen with them. Today, I’m the one who initiates the days and places our family volunteers our time to. Growing up with the knowledge of opportunity, poverty, and the realization of how lucky I truly am, has given me an advantage in life. Ever since I was nine years old I haven’t taken anything I have for granted. From the house that I live in to the family that I have, I realize that the man in the soup kitchen who smiled at me probably never thought he would be lining up for some food in the basement of a building in the dead of winter. Goethe once said that knowing is not enough, but instead “we must turn what we know to account.” By turning the knowledge of the world around me into action, I am making a life for myself that I have to believe will pay off someday on a larger scale. By volunteering in the community, I am creating ripples in the pond of life that I can only hope will keep being pass%d on to others, so they can have the opportunity of experiencing what a huge impact one person can make upon the world.
Rebuttal
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“For when the One Great Scorer comes |
- Your life won’t be measured in how many people’s lives you affect, but rather how you lived your own life.
- Attempting to live your life well is all that is necessary. One need not focus only on succeeding and trying to fulfill their goals.
- The end justifies the means.
- There is no point in trying because one that lives an uneventful life will not be judged on all their success, but rather the general segment of how they lived their life.
- You don’t need to make a life-changing difference in someone’s life to have lived a good life, by living each day well you can achieve the same results.
- Turning knowledge into power and taking initiative to succeed can be wasteful because the result will be inevitably bad either way.