“We need more
kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to
contribute to that.”
Ellen DeGeneres
During the month of November, a little bit before Thanksgiving I
participated in an event hosted by my professor at the Veterans Village. This
event was to give appreciation to our Veterans who are struggling even the
slightest bit and help them.
We were all
told to bring a dish of our choice or plates and silver wear the men and women
could eat with on the sign-up website. Since I’m not that good of a cook I
decided to bring my famous “slutty brownies” ( they’re just brownies with sugar
cookies on the bottom and oreo’s in the center...soo good...at least I think
so). While I was baking these, I was so nervous about the Veterans liking my
dish that I almost forgot them on the way to the event! Once I arrived we all
set up our dishes at the dinner table downstairs and waited for the men and
women of the veterans village to arrive.
After participating in this event I feel like it made me realize how much
it means to those in need a simple smile or question about how they’re doing
means to them.
Especially
going out of your way to help them and bring them home cooked foods really
affects them. While speaking with the men and women, even if they didn't show
it, you could tell in their eyes how much it meant to them that we had brought
them home cooked foods and fresh fruits. So many of them were continuously
thanking us it felt heartwarming to show them we care and are thankful for
there services and that it’s ok that they may be struggling right now because
there are people in this world that care. Doing this helped me use my core
values to express my compassion and humor to these men and women to make them
feel more comfortable around us. From doing this I feel like my communication
skills have improved because I was able to put myself out of my comfort zone
and make sure those who were strangers to me felt comfortable and were taken care of. This made me
realize how badly I want to do more in the world to help those in need.
In my opinion, I feel very strongly that our generation
is what this society will rely on in the future and that we should make it a
known responsibility to help those in need. Helping those who can’t help
themselves as much as they'd like, is not just benefiting
them but it can
also benefit the person contributing by giving them a sense of contentment and
happiness along with those feelings of the person who is getting the help. It’s
not easy for veterans to come out and swallow their pride to ask for help with there
lives because they have little to nothing to survive. It should be our job as a
society, as a nation to make sure that these people are not afraid to ask for
help and that we offer help and services to help those in needs without even
having to be asked.
That is why I chose the quote by Ellen because I as well want to do more
in this world to bring about more kindness in the world because she is correct;
we definitely do need it.
