On December 4th, 2019, I attended the late-night breakfast in Smith-Steeb hall. It was at the end of the semester with finals looming, and a nice little social event was a good way to ease all of the tension that goes along with the last week of school. Since this event was after an International Affairs community meeting, everyone knew about this event and most of the people on smith 8 were hanging before we went down. There were so many of us, in fact, that we could not all fit in one elevator. Even as we were waiting for the elevator, we could smell the bacon that was 8 floors below. Once we got downstairs, it was surprising to see how many people were already in line. With both the IA program and the PSL scholars, the area outside the smith glass classroom was packed. It took a while to wait in the line, but it went fast talking with everyone around me. Once we got to the buffet table, I stacked my plate up with eggs, bacon, and pancakes. We stayed downstairs a while longer talking to our friends in PSL about how the semester has gone. However, in anticipation to eat, we all went back up to the common room on the 8th floor. Everything was delicious and being with all of my friends in IA made it even better. It was a nice night to eat together and relax and took the edge off of the stress I was feeling with my final coming up later that week. 

On February 8th, 2020, I volunteered at the Huckleberry House in Colombus, OH. In short, this house is a safe place for local kids to go if they are experiencing a crisis. It does not matter what degree of crisis, ranging from feeling unsafe at home to being subject to human trafficking, the Huckleberry House will take them in and provide a safe environment. After a stay of normally a couple of weeks, the workers there will try to reunite the child with a parent or guardian if it is safe. For this event specifically, about 7 of us met in the Smith Steeb lobby in the morning. After a short bus ride and walk, we were at the house getting a tour. The woman giving the tour was very genuine and it was obvious that she cared greatly for everyone in the house. The kids have dorm rooms on the upper floor and common rooms and game areas on the lower floor. Our job was to do a general cleaning of the downstairs while most of the kids were still upstairs sleeping. We took time to organize the games in the game room, wipe down the windows, chairs, and tables with Clorox wipes, and sweep up the ground. After we got done cleaning each room, I felt as though we made it look better. Once the kids came downstairs to eat, we got to converse with them for a small amount of time. It was fulfilling to see the kids who we were working for, and you could tell that they and their supervisors appreciated it.