Shannon- Tupac- Day Five

On our last day of volunteering at the Tupac center, we ran errands and filed papers in preparation for an event to be held by the foundation on the following day. We also worked outside on removing an invasive species from the property. This was the last day, and the entire group was exhausted both mentally and physically from a week of hard work. However, we managed to keep up morale by acknowledging that our work was toward a good cause that we all believed firmly in. After a long day of work, we retired to the home of two of the members of the congregation. They had generously offered to host us for the night in another demonstration of the wonderful “Southern Hospitality” we had been receiving all week. After dinner the group reflected on the week of volunteering at the Tupac center. We recognized the difficulties of running a non-profit organization and felt that, while we perhaps felt that we had not done a whole lot to change the lives of others, we had helped the Tupac center at least in a small way. However, we all felt that the biggest learning experience of the trip came from living at the church. Through our experience with the members of the congregation, we learned a lot about equality and were exposed to issues that had never personally affected any of us before.  We also acknowledged that as a group, we were quite diverse. When we took a quiz that assigned an animal based on personality, we were all different animals. We found it amazing that we were able to work so well as a group when we were all so different aside from our love of music. This demonstrated to me that community service can bring people of very different backgrounds together and can create valuable experiences as well as lasting friendships.