I have always believed that the meaning of life comes from giving meaning and joy to lives around you, thus I have always found myself enjoying community service and volunteering expenditures.
I generally participate in laid-back and low-key volunteer positions, (not that there is anything wrong with these,) but during our Alternative Spring Break trip this most recent spring break I found myself stepping well beyond my own personal limits of service.
It was a risk I was terrified to take, and yet I held my breath and jumped in anyway.
I am a political science major, far away from the reaches of pre-med, and for a very good reason. I simply do not handle medical situations well.
Yet, here I was, volunteering for a five-day long camp to work with seriously ill children that had very specific and routine medical needs.
I will not lie. At first, I was absolutely terrified that once I got down there, I would not be able to handle it, that I would freak out and hide in my cabin for five days. But then, after an anxious two-hour wait on Wednesday afternoon, we met the children.
I and four other volunteers were assigned to a family with six children, ranging from 1 year to 19 years in age, and from the moment they stepped off of their bus, I was bombarded with what life really is.
These children with such critical health issues played, ran, laughed, and lived as if there was nothing in the world that could hold them back. The beauty they saw in everything was absolutely breathtaking.
And to think they had spent the majority of their young lives in hospitals, having nurses constantly at their sides, having medical treatments throughout every single day of their lives just to keep them alive, and here they were, acting simply as children with a passionate love for everything in life.
The camp was amazing. After every meal we danced and sang, with children dancing and singing all around us, enjoying every second of their living.
We made wooden racecars in the wood shop for the final day’s race. We did archery with the children. We played mini-golf. We went swimming. We did everything that any healthy, normal child would do at camp.
The most beautiful thing about the camp, though, was that the single overriding rule was to love: to love everyone around you for who they were, no matter how young or old, no matter how healthy or ill, to consistently encourage love and hope, and to make those around you feel better about their world and themselves.
The only way I can describe this camp to those who have not experienced it is that it was a small utopia in the middle of nowhere, Florida.
A place of perfect harmony, acceptance, and sincere hope and love. Where everyone truly, sincerely was part of an enormous happy family that cherished every second of living.
I went to this place afraid, and yet I left humbled and with a bit of wisdom on life.
Finally, the truth of living was really put into perspective, and the sheer importance of living each and every second to its fullest, as if it were your last second, really hit home.
I have never in my life had such an experience, and I can only be endlessly grateful that I could share my time and my life with such amazing people.

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