Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
When I was 12 I had lost myself. I moved from the city life, living with two parents two the suburbs, countryside living left with only a mother, and a father I saw once a month. New town, new people, one parent, new school, new house, it was a new life, I was 12 and I could not comprehend what was happening,. with a new house meant my mom had to work two jobs meaning sometimes she worked late till 10pm. I was alone with no one around. I started becoming depressed, everyday it was a struggle to pay attention to school, make friends, eventually I stopped caring about school and about myself because it seemed that nobody else cared either. I slowly lost confidence in myself, I spent hours a day trying to make myself look good, I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere. I ended up getting into the wrong crowd of kids, I had so much free time which led to trouble, but my mom had to work two jobs and deal with three teenagers and two in high school who were barely going to graduate. But eventually she saw something was wrong and thought I needed to be busy especially since summer was coming around. The City of Oakley had a program called "the jr. rec leader program" in which kids from 12-16 would volunteer at a summer camp 8hrs day 5days a week for the whole summer. Working just like an employee except as a volunteer. I did not resent to much because it brought back memories of things I used to do, and my greatest passion- helping others. This program taught me everything I know today and every summer I kept learning more. From learning work ethics and responsibility to gainig a sense of belonging and rekindling my passions. After a couple weeks I guess you could I "re-evaluated" myself, I thought to myself "im so privileged to have an oppturnity to do something I love, be a part of a group of kids (who are not involed in juvinile crimes), and look what im doing for my community." In this program, I was given authority and responsibility to take care of a group kids based on my judgment and knowledge that I was taught. But these lessons about work, responsibility, and leadership helped me cope with my life and what I was going through. This brought me back to the world, working as volunteer for my community taught me discipline, responsibility but most importantly the value of helping others. This one program taught and gave me so much. All my life I did community service, but for what? To complete hours for some club. But this community program taught me the signifcance of why helping out in your community is important, and how it can help yourself and most importantly so many others. This program didn't just help me regain myself but it taught me that we help others for Honeslty, without this program I would not be who I am today.
** i really need help on the organization of this essay PLEASE
