For my community service requirement for the International Affairs Scholars Program, I participated in The Ohio State University’s biggest community service event called Community Commitment on August 25th, 2018. We all were gathered into one of the large ballrooms on the second floor and sat with my assigned group. From there, my group was told that we were going to be helping at a Goodwill store. We then left the ballroom, hopped on a bus, and left for the Goodwill.
When we arrived at the store, the manager welcomed us with open arms and led us to her office to discuss what we were going to be helping with. We were sectioned in groups that either helped price and tag halloween decor, makeup, and costumes or helped some of the staff with tagging and racking clothes for the shelves. I ended up in the halloween group where we put price stickers on all the donated items. This didn’t come without difficulty however. Within the whole store, there was only one working price gun. This meant that we had to slowly go through hundreds of items, many with different prices, and mark them one by one.This made me think about how underfunded second hand stores like Goodwill are. They do so much good to help provide struggling people with furniture, clothes, and other necessities when they, too, are struggling as well.
After about two hours, our group leader called a snack break for fifteen to thirty minutes. This kind of confused me because we were only going to be volunteering for around three hours and thought it would be a waste to stop so I hopped on over to the clothing section of the back organization rooms and helped this really nice lady named Dolores. As we were sorting our clothes and hanging them up, she told me all about herself. She had four children and she raised them all as a single mother. She talked about her love for cooking and we compared many different family recipes within that hour of talking. She was also a very sassy woman, in the best kind of way, and she told me all about her dislike for Justin Bieber; we also shared the same opinion on him as well. When that last hour ended, she gave me the best hug and said I made her day. When I asked her why, she replied,”Because you talked to me.”
Leaving Goodwill should have been a happy occasion for me. I mean volunteering, contributing to society; that should have made me feel good. However, it kind of made me upset. Things like clothes and furniture, and even decent conversations come easily in my life. I forgot that some people struggle to have clean, usable clothing, or bed to sleep in at night. It was not pity I was feeling, because pity never allows understanding and learning. It was more of a check. It put me in my place and made me look at what I had and what opportunities I was given compared to others. It reaffirmed that I cannot waste the opportunities I have been given and makes me even more motivated to accomplish my goals.