Dog-Eat-Dog World

Sunday
Pre-Monday.

Monday
Monday goes as Mondays often go. She comes home, heaves her backpack on the couch and contemplates life; life in general, her future, college, the remaining school year, and the next few hours. She tells her mother she has so much homework. The response is the same, that she should get started soon. The girl digs through the disarray of textbooks and half-completed assignments in her backpack, pulls out a small notebook, places it back with a melodramatic sigh, and makes her way upstairs. I don't follow. On Mondays she prefers to be alone.

Tuesday
Second Monday.

Wednesday
Better than Monday. Her school week is half completed. Tomorrow is Thursday; the day ensuing is Friday. The atmosphere is lighter. Today, however, she grumbles about grades. She did poorly on a test. She claims it was harder than she had expected it to be. I know it was hard because I never saw her study.

Thursday
Tomorrow is Friday. Today is more pleasant than yesterday. She knows the school week is coming to a close. She doesn't open her backpack tonight. She always does Thursday's homework on Friday morning.

Friday
It is 4 am and I wonder why she is awake before I recall what day it is. Even I am weary. I wonder why she doesn't just do her homework on Thursday. She could still be sleeping if she wanted to.

Friday (evening)
She gets home. She lobs her backpack on the couch, flings her shoes in the closet, and goes to her room. She reads as she always does. Her mother asks for her assistance with laundry. The girl tells her mother that she is exhausted and asks if she can help after she has rested. I wonder why she didn't just do her homework earlier. She could have gotten a few more hours of sleep last night.

Friday (late evening)
She is doing the laundry. She tells her mother about her week and how she has no friends. She’s exaggerating; I’ve met her friends before. She can't wait to leave her school. She's always talking about how she can name the people she genuinely likes on one hand.

Saturday
She leaves early; goes out to be with friends. I sleep curled up at the end of her bed until she is home again.

Woof Draft

 Woof Draft

For my entire life, I have been prone to indecision; irresolute in most situations. However, in Guatemala, I came to a realization; a decision I had never been so sure of in my entire life: I had come to the conclusion that I wanted to help people. Whatever career I chose, I just wanted to be able to walk away with the satisfaction that I had affected someone’s life in a positive way; even better, I loved being able to witness the direct effect.

I was in Guatemala on a school service trip. I came to this conclusion very early within my nine days of being there. It was the second day of actually meeting with our set groups; I had been placed in the agriculture group. After a long day of vaccinating uncooperative animals, we began to head back to the local church. However, along the way, we passed a house where an older lady was lifting cinder-blocks by herself; not only that, but it also appeared that she was not anywhere close to being finished. So, we stopped and helped her. I had spilled my water bottle earlier in the day, but after we had finished helping, a girl who I assumed to be her daughter came out with 7UP. I could see the condensation on the outside of the bottle and subconsciously deemed this girl my savior.

The 7UP, seemingly significant to most people, contributed to this being one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. The experience in its entirety, placed with the other events I witnessed and was involved with in Guatemala, led me to the understanding that I really love helping people and not just in the typical “yeah, it sure is nice to put a smile on someone’s face” way. This is totally different; seeing that I have in fact made a difference in someone’s life or even just their day literally gives me this satisfaction that I cannot get from anything else. Even if it is something that seems rather inconsequential, knowing how much of a difference just a small act of kindness can make for someone just makes me so stinking giddy in the best way possible. Since that day and just that week in general, I always make a greater effort to help out with not only the big things, but the little things too.

Being so sure of something for once in my indecisive life has really changed something inside of me. Even on the bad days, I am looking for ways that I can improve myself, and that usually involves helping others. I enjoy making others happy because it brings me great happiness as well.