"Whoever is happy, will make others happy, too." - Anne Frank
by Taylor Nyman, '10
When we read Anne Frank's diary in 8th grade, this one phrase stood out to me most. It was monumental in forming my views on what service is and why it's important. While the lessons that I've learned through service are innumerable, the three that have made such a great impact on who I am today are that I've learned to be patient, I've discovered the power of my voice, and I've begun to understand the concept of social responsibility.
While serving kindergartners at Elm Street Elementary School this year, we worked a lot on blending the sounds of letters to form words. This is under any circumstances a challenging task. Imagine the task when it involves three rambunctious five year olds who don't know English as their first language. A couple of weeks ago we were sitting outside the classroom blending letters with those laminated sheets and some dry erase markers.
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Usually what I do is have two boys write their letters while I work with the one on sounding it out, that way they each get a little bit of attention. So I'm working with a student and when I look over one of the other students is blinking uncontrollably saying, "I'm alright Miss Taylor, I'm alright. I'm alright." Then I look further and see the other student holding a dry erase marker like a dart with a sinister smile on his face.
"They really taught me that being laid back does not mean being passive."
I came to find out that while I was blending letters with one student, the other students were poking each other in the eye. After they apologized to each other and we finished the activity, I could not stop thinking about how much more patient I have become over the course of this year. I learned that working with other people means you cannot always have a set plan, especially with kids. They really taught me that being laid back does not mean being passive.
Another big lesson I've learned is that I now understand the power of my voice. A big reason for that is what I've learned from Diego. For our Global Youth Service Day Project, my group had all of the fifth graders at Elm write a letter to a soldier serving overseas. I was reading through the letters when I came across Diego's. One part of it says, "I was born in Mexico when my brothers, except the youngest was born in Ohio. When I grow up, I want to be a soccer player and have a nice life."
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The reason this kind of stopped me in my tracks was that
even if Diego's family is not undocumented, I know there are so many families like his. I can't imagine finding out that Diego and his older siblings and parents were sent back to Mexico, and his little brother, a citizen, was separated from his family and placed into foster care in the US. I don't know how any voter or government representative could ever justify that this solves the immigration problem. This really made me aware of the power of our voices, and made my desire to use my voice to influence change so much more prevalent. |
"Service is absolutely, 100%, NOT about generosity. It's not charity. Service is about responsibility, and while I know I have so much to learn, I'm so glad that I'm beginning to understand that."
The final lesson that I want to talk about is the fact that I think I've begun to understand what social responsibility is all about. Eva is one student who has become very important to me. I don't know when it was that things clicked between us, maybe it was when I walked behind her one day while she was working and said, "that looks good so far, Eva. Keep working." But for whatever reason, Eva has become one of the biggest reasons we're always so excited to go to Elm. Mr. Soeder met her when came to Elm last week and he can testify to how quiet she really is. But whenever I walk in the room, she walks straight over to me and give me a hug. Eva's taught me that being there for someone is not a hard task, but it takes effort.
Social responsibility, I've found, also means simply giving what I have to offer. for Joshie's mom at Su Casa, this really just meant giving her a break. Life at Su Casa is a lot of things, but it's definitely not quiet. There are so many kids running around everywhere, and I know this doesn't help the
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stress that so many of the parents are already under. Joshie's mom heard me speaking in Spanish to one of the kids and came over to ask me if I could watch her kids in the Sala Grande for a while because she needed to rest. I know it really wasn't that big of a deal that I said yes, and that in the long run it didn't make much of a difference,but she was just so grateful that I did say yes. I learned that giving even a little can help a lot. I can't imagine the life that she had already had, and giving her just an hour or so of quiet, was the least I could offer.
If there's one thing that i can be positive I've taken with me from my experience with service, whether it was at PSL or Leadership Lake County or Youth Philanthropy and Service at Case, it's that service is absolutely, 100%, NOT about generosity. It's not charity. Service is about responsibility, and while I know I have so much more to learn, I'm so glad that I'm beginning to understand that. Excerpted from Taylor's PSL final presentation. |
About the author
As a member of the PSL class of 2010, Taylor Nyman served as a tutor at Elm Street Elementary School in Painesville, Ohio. She also participated in the Chicago Urban Plunge to Su Casa. After graduating Perry, Taylor attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where she studied Spanish and Mass Communications/Media Studies. Since 2014 she has served as a Teach for America corps member at a charter school in San Jose, California.
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