Listen to Your Elders by Gabriela

Listen to Your Elders by Gabriela - May 2018 Scholarship Essay

At a young age I have always felt the need to help others from my family, friends, teachers, and strangers. This passion of mine is what motivated me to spend most of my high school education volunteering with leadership groups. Out of all the volunteer opportunities I’ve had the pleasure in participating the most memorable opportunity was at my local elderly home. It was brought to my leadership group’s attention during the holiday season that many old folks who did not have regular visitors would get lonely. My local Boys and Girls Club leadership group and I decided we would bring some cheer into the home every week. I participated in actives such as: bingo, kitchen and serving help during dinner, art classes, movie night and “senior talk” where we would simply just listen to some amazing stories.
One woman who stood out to me the most was named Claire, she told me many stories about her life as a teenager that always made me laugh because she somehow always related it back to me. Her relating her stories back to me let me experience her life lessons because there was always a moral to her stories. At times I’m not sure who benefited more from the friendship more, Claire or I. There were days where she would say: “Gabby, your mother must have known you would be a talker when she named you!” One story that has stuck with me to this day is one of her and her sister. She said her and her sister had a falling out years ago when they were in their mid twenties when her sister took a flower vase away from her—or was it a scarf? To that day she couldn’t remember what was taken away that led to a ruined their sisterhood.
She said that she missed her sister for a span of five years and wished they would have made amends sooner so she didn’t have to lose so many years without her, especially because she missed the birth of one of her nieces. She once told me “there isn’t an object on this planet that is worth more than the relationship between you and your blood,” and it took a couple of years for me to really understand her words. Every time my sister and I argue over materialistic things I try to let go of the argument and move forward because I couldn’t imagine a day, let alone five years without my sister.