In high school, by senior year, I had a set role. I was in JROTC and my roles and duties were decided for me. I was the Drum Corps Commander, so I was supposed to lead the team. Transitioning into college took away that set role and forced me to start over. Over the course of the first month, my role was just to get used to Baruch and the little group of people that I traveled to most my classes with.
As i join clubs or find other things that I am passionate about, my role will grow and change. Right now, my role is just to be a good friend so I can actually keep my friends instead of ending up being by myself through this rough journey called college.
Other than my school role, my role in society is to be a good citizen. People will have different opinions on what that entails, but everyone would agree that community service or just helping out the community is one way to be a good citizen. Small things like picking up trash on the side of the sidewalk, or recycling instead of throwing out the paper bag in the trash might not seem like much, but they do add up.
The first time I did community service was for a project, similar to the one we are doing in our class. My group went to the Ronald McDonald House to bake for the families staying there. I didn’t even know how to bake or have the slightest idea how to make batter for the cookies, but I needed to get a good grade so I went along with it. The whole time we were baking, I kept questioning how making a couple cookies and brownies would make some kid happy, and how such a little thing could mean the world to someone. Once we were done baking, I could see that what we did actually had an impact on the kids. Their smiles and their shyness coming back for seconds touched me in a way that I’ve never felt before. I realized that although community service is about giving back, you also learn a lot from it too.
Our role as Honor Students should be to be able to do things like that. Give back to the community in any way possible. I feel that all of our roles should just be to leave Baruch better than we found it.