Something that really impacted me this year was being the service chair for the Muslim Student Association. With the pandemic, it was extremely hard not only to find volunteer opportunities but to grow as a person. I felt stunted as the world around me shifted and changed and no one really knew how the future would look. Something that really helped was a food pantry I would go to every Saturday. Even though covid was hard and the restrictions we had to endure (six feet apart and masks while doing hard labor) was difficult I found myself looking forward to it every week. It was the only social interaction I would get and it would be an entire day dedicated to helping others. At the end, I made a service event to the pantry and many people from the organization came out for a day of social distancing and helping. It was the first real event I had ever planned in my life and although not necessarily difficult, I will always remember it.

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Project Downtown

Most Sunday afternoons in the union, the Muslim Student Association holds a weekly meeting where we make food “packages” for the homeless consisting of a fruit, a turkey sandwich, and a granola bar. Making around a hundred in an hour and getting to know members as well as other people on campus who wanted to help out was fun and enlightening as we had a discussion at the very end about the task. We were encouraged to think about why we were doing what we were doing and it gave me time to reflect and think. I saw this as a way to give back to a community who needed it as well as aiding those who could not help themselves. As a group, we tied this back to religion and thought about why things like people going hungry happen. I was slightly taken aback as I had never thought about why suffering had occurred, but just understood it as the way the world worked. We spoke on different reasonings like it all being a tested on those lacking food and those with the food as well as way to grow closer to God through the actions of helping others. It gave us time to self reflect and also acknowledge that although suffering occurs, we should try our best to relieve what we can.

During the pandemic, project downtown was moved to the church basement and remained about the same except for the necessary restrictions. I think after 2020, I genuinely saw the value of helping others.