Initially, my perception of what the community service project was going to be like included terms such as bleak, boring, inconvenient, and of course unnecessary, but little did I know how big of an impact it was going to have on me as a person. My participation in the Community Service Project encouraged me work even harder than before and lead me into drawing upon the expertise of faculty and staff! Seeing people at rock bottom and serving them myself was a truly humbling experience and encouraged me to do whatever is in my ability to work harder and make the world a better place for everyone. How this ties back to absorbing wisdom from faculty and staff is that I want to learn what they have done to serve the community in the past and what they believe can be done to make helping others more widespread and efficient. I like to get perspective from others and try to understand their views and why it is that way. I know for a fact that I am continuing to serve the community right now and like insight from others. At the moment, I am involved in the United Sikhs Association, Model United Nations, Real Estate Finance, and Success Network. I strategically chose these courses! Model UN for the purpose of learning public speaking, Success Network to meet new people and network, Real Estate Finance because I am getting into real estate development and investing. Last but certainly not least, I would like to place special emphasis on the USA club. This is a Sikh cultural club and largely encourages the 3 Pillars of our Sikh religion: Naam Japna (praising God), Kirat Karna (honest business and living), and Vand Chakna (serving the community). Vand Chakna means to serve the community including to, but limited to soup kitchen, clothing drives, homeless shelters, etc. Despite all the struggles of everyday life, our religion (with which this club associates) encourages seva (free service for others) regardless of race, religion, social status, caste, nationality, etc. and the project we did for NY Cares was very similar to what we do on a weekly basis at our Gurdwaras (Sikh temple). Taking all these aspects and balancing them out into my first semester college career is really helping me to build not only my future, but the futures of many more and in 3 years I see myself serving the community religiously, buying condos/ apartment complexes, and being human.
Journal #2
What does it mean to serve your community? Well, if I were to put it in the most simple terms, I would say that it is to give our time back to the community. How and where would we be able to do so? To be honest you can do anything anywhere for anyone. I would justify it being community service to hand a homeless person a $5 bill, but it wouldn’t be quite as satisfying as giving back in the form of time. This weekend my team and I went to this Church in Manhattan and served the homeless food. It was a very satisfying and joyful experience seeing the looks on their faces when we put food on their trays! As kids we would take food for granted and say “ewww salad and veggies” all the time, but acknowledged that there were people out there without food when we were growing up. We never saw this firsthand, so unconsciously we were still dismissive of the notion that people were hungry and would eat anything they got their hands on. While doing community service this weekend we saw how eagerly people stared at us while waiting on line as if we were some sort of saviors or something. And to some extent I did start feeling like I was there that day for a reason; I was there not to serve the community as a class requirement, but rather to bring joy and potentially life to an entire group of needy people! I wish everyone would just spend time every now and then to help other people out. They say that to solve your problems you have to help others solve theirs’! Well I feel as though this solved all my not-so-big-of-a-deal problems that I initially perceived to be huge. I’m looking forward to going back next weekend to help more people out!
Journal #1
Throughout my 17 (almost 18) year life I have been through a lot of struggles, but also experiences that radiate joy. As it it obvious in class, I wear a turban and did so as a kid (I took a few years gap in between though). Due to following my religion (Sikhism) and false prejudiced perceptions, I have been attacked in the past in early elementary school. Yes, it was very traumatic, but it shaped me into a character that is tough and can take on struggle and discrimination. I have also gone through depression in the very recent past (the past week) and I never acknowledged how bad it was and how much it can put someone down. For that reason I slacked down trying to recuperate and bring myself back to life physically, mentally, and emotionally. I am in the process of recovering and am definitely making progress, but sometimes I do get the negative vibes and painful emotions that the world is plotting against me and that I have no purpose to live. I only recently realized that the purpose of living life is to be balanced… We must be happy, work hard to provide for our families, be honest and give to others, and never ever forget to be grateful and appreciate everything around us. Life is tough, but the toughness aspect is what makes us appreciate the joys even more and it definitely is the small things that matter. My aspirations as a college student is not only to grind and build my future, but also be happy and enjoy life! This first semester is a period of major personal growth and development!