Journal #3

All the speakers we had on Monday spoke a lot about passion – being passionate about certain subjects, about their future careers, about helping people. That they wanted to and loved doing all that they did is what allowed them to be so successful at handling their huge responsibilities. I have debated joining clubs and have went to a few meetings for several. Though they are great and useful clubs, it took me a while to find one that truly sparked my interest – my own thing to be passionate about. As I stood by the escalators on the second floor of VC during club hours a week ago, two girls came up to me and joked that the lollipop (a free lollipop offered along with a “kiss me I don’t smoke” paper) was almost done and I could use a Hershey’s kiss. I agreed and they gave me a red paper heart that said create love now on top, and told me to write something, anything positive. Not to be corny, but I immediately fell in love with the idea. Sure, there are a tons of empowering, kind and positive quotes that we find in books or on the internet and even in our planners. Despite all of that, there are people who are constantly unhappy or angry or dissatisfied with their lives and maybe seeing that red paper heart posted there, or writing something good for someone else, would change that. People are unhappy with the person they are and often complain about it, wishing they had someone else’s wealth or looks or grades or job. No one’s life is perfect but thinking about the good things and realizing that they are indeed good can work wonders for your mood and your happiness.

My participation in Community Service Project has shown me that a lot of the faculty that I wouldn’t necessarily thought would be a help, were. The librarians were a huge help in showing us websites that are useful for finding organizations – showing us Idealist and how huge the Baruch database is. Maria’s way of setting deadlines for us was very helpful and the tips from last week’s speakers about really using the planner and writing things down in two places was great. Ultimately, everyone can make a difference because even if one person doesn’t directly influence a whole group (though writers and speakers do that often,) they can influence just one more person, who will influence another and another.