[Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.]
I'm still thinking of a title. Don't go easy on editing, I'm up for any changes necessary. THANKS!
12:00 P.M., opening announcing was just about to end and I was nervous with excitement. "You can do it," I said to myself as an icy shiver followed my spinal cord down to my quads. To save time, I followed the coordinators to go get supplies before the event started while the partner of my group gathered up the groupies. At the back doors, each group leader took a 30-gallon garbage can with brooms, prongs, and garbage bags and moved it to the front entrance to meet up with their group but as I looked outside the windows, little did I know the weather man was right for once. My excitement and eagerness for this event declined but I still pushed my group's can as fast as I could, dodging confused civilians and construction beams and met up with them. When I got there and looked at the faces of my groupie, I thought, "I can't let them down. I'm going to make this fun because we are group seven volunteering in the seventh annual Chinatown Beautification Day in Manhattan's Chinatown".
It was my first time taking up such an enormous leadership role and sadly, the sky decided to rain on my first time. My partner and I moved our seventeen member group to Pell St. As I was about to explain what we were about to do, I noticed all eyes were on me. I didn't have an umbrella in the rain, my hair was completely wet, and I was at a lost for words. I stuttered as I started to gather up my courage and lay down our task. The task to clean the streets of Chinatown and let by passers know that the youth can advocate change in our community.
We split up into mini groups and soon a news reporter had appeared and questioned me as to what was going on. I was ecstatic and drew my confidence to reply to any question she threw at me and I felt an all time high. After we were done, I went back into the pouring rain to clean with my broom. The elderly would occasionally pass by and tell me to either "Go home," or "These streets would always be dirty". I remember one person who passed by and told my group members who were holding umbrellas to be more like me, cleaning without an umbrella. Some of the groupies started to use the extra garbage bags to make ponchos and it was such a sight. They were still enthusiastic about cleaning and there were smiles on their faces as they laughed at one another. It was a whole new me, I got an adrenaline from cleaning the streets and more importantly the smiles that brought sunshine to such a rainy day.
Chinatown Beautification taught me how to find an inner happiness while helping out the community and advocating change by the youth. I was shivering with excitement and brought down by the rain but I became more involved with my community. I saw that people actually cared about and wanted to do something about the dirty streets of Chinatown while I would normally be at home watching YouTube videos. I might not have been the ideal leader that day but I found a passion and I after being a leader for the first time, I look for every opportunity I can to get that same adrenaline again.
lol I was going to write about Chinatown Beautification Day too XD We had to clean a park. But yeah, try making it more about how it affected you rather than summarizing the day, I made the same mistake.
