Undergraduate / "I experienced Guatemala this summer" - issue of importance UTb essay [5]

this is just a draft that i haven't completely finished yet. Just wanted to know what you thought and whether it was on topic or not...

Prompt: Choose an issue of importance to you-the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope-and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.

Encased in the mountains and volcanoes of Guatemala is world unlike our own. A culture that differs tremendously than the one we live in. Here, people live a life displaying there is more to life than money and fancy things and they do not take anything for granted. Neighbors help neighbors, no questions asked and no strings attached. Children happily join their parents at work in the field. People live by disparate rules down in Guatemala; you just have to look carefully to see it. Over the summer, I went to Guatemala with a group from Habitat for Humanity and witnessed this completely different world and lifestyle they live.

Once I stepped off the plane, I entered an alternate universe. I towered above the brightly dressed woman standing with her children. Driving to our hotel, I looked out the window to my left. A man, a woman with a baby on her back and a child in-between the two rode on a single motorcycle. On the other side of the car lay a magnificent landscape of mountains covered with fields of corn and other crops. Hidden in the acres of corn fields, a tin house roof peeks out. Inside the house, furniture and one bed sit upon dirt floors. The tin plank walls held together by wiring and a pole in the four corners help to make a foundation. Our habitat family lived in a house just like this one. A mother, a father and a little 3 year old girl living inside a one bedroom house along with family relatives. This family welcomed us with a grateful heart and thank you's that trump any material gift.

Awaiting us every day at our worksite, was the house owners wife smiling and already working. When something needed to be done, she appeared immediately to complete the task. Throughout the course of the day the neighbors would come help us move concrete bricks, make rebar and anything else that was required. Neighborhood children gathered around and helped us as well. Three year olds would move half a concrete brick and try to make rebar. If that was not strange enough older kids would help mix the cement and water and stones. During the entire time, the laughing and talking between the owner's wife and her neighbors created an atmosphere that made me wonder how they can be so carefree and yet live they way they do. Each day when I left the site, it made me think of how I hardly know my neighbors and how they almost certainly would not give up their day to help my family out. How would my world change if people acted on kindness rather than money?

The melting pot used to be filled with neighbors helping one another out and people paying it forward but something happened along the way that halted that. A family moves into a neighborhood or a building a never meets a neighbor. People have forgotten the golden rule, as did I. However, when I experienced Guatemala this summer, I was reminded of the simplest yet easiest thing to forget. I had forgotten how to be a neighbor and I do not mean just to the person living beside me, I mean to everyone. Encountering people who live on a penny's worth and can be so giving can remind a person of things we learned as a child. If people visited a third world country like Guatemala and actually spent time with the natives rather than being a tourist, they would be able to understand. A simple smile to someone can create the a chain of random acts of kindness.

Thank you!!

Undergraduate / Smile and the World Smiles With You ut a essay [2]

Just wanted to know your thoughts on this...

Prompt-Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.

It ended with Mickey Mouse ears and pancakes. IHOP came alive once again at one a.m. as a group of employees gathered to say a final goodbye to our manager, Tracey. She was being promoted to a higher position at another store. Our entire store respected and loved Tracey. Everything could be going completely wrong and yet there was like ray of light coming from Tracey that allowed everyone at work, including me, to get through the night. Every single person had one memory about Tracey that stuck out in front of the rest. Some memories included hanging out after closing. Others were about playing baseball in the back or ordering take out. While I do remember times similar to those, my most prominent memory of Tracey is not like any of those.

The place was flooded with people. Hearing a person within one foot of you was a challenge all on its own. A maze made of people made up the game room and party area. Every thirty seconds, a new parent started screaming at the employees for a broken game, their food was taking too long, or someone cut them in line. To add to this mayhem, children dart through the maze of people, knocking into whoever is in their way. Surrounded by the out of control children demanding immediate attention and parents vexed about the slightest slip-up because they forgot to bring ear plugs and that extra aspirin was a smile. Helping a child who fell down or a parent arguing over that insignificant thing, no task was done with a frown. First impression would deceive you into thinking this cheerfulness was an act, spend half an hour with Tracey and you discover you were seriously mistaken.

Guest after guest would walk away smiling following an encounter with Tracey. No matter how mad they would be they would fall victim to her contagious smile. Her compassion towards the guest problems and that happy-go-lucky attitude of hers combined to form a calming remedy for any angry guest. Halfway through their complaint they would start to recover their composure and explain the situation in a logical standpoint. Staying in the background, I heard and saw everything that went down when Tracey and a guest would exchange words. She never realized I was standing there in awe. I kept trying to figure out how she could affect some one that much to their mood go in a complete one eighty. How could someone be so angry and then be completely placid?

Then it clicked. Smile and the world smiles back at you. Although the guests were angry with what was going on, Tracey's attitude was able to differ their anger. If you give off pure positive vibes, people will generally send them back your way, no matter the circumstances. People act towards someone according to the atmosphere the latter creates. If someone was hostile towards you, the normal reaction would be to send that hostility back towards them or back off. This accomplishes nothing. For that moment in time, just forget about everything else that is happening and concentrate on how to make someone walk away happier than they were before. That's the major thing I learned while Tracey was a manager at my store.

To be influential, you don't always have to be a "person of influence". To be honest, the people who have influenced me the most are probably not even aware of the things they've taught me. While working with Tracey, I was able to observe how to make people in all types of moods walk away with a smile on their face. Changing someone's mood for the better will stay with them and they will remember who you are. I have never heard one person say they had a bad experience when they made a complaint or talked to Tracey. Those people always have something positive to say. Learning how to change someone's frame of mind is one thing that will never become useless. Wherever you are, someone trying to pick a fight with you or complaining to you is a most probable occurrence. Without even knowing it, Tracey taught me a lesson I will surely never forget and how can you forget a lesson where all you have to do is smile.

thanks!!