My Life Changing Spring Break by Oyin

My Life Changing Spring Break by Oyin - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

I had the fortunate experience of going on an Alternative Breaks Service Trip, a program that allows students to travel to different areas, either during Winter, Spring, or Summer Break. At the different locations, students are given the opportunity to address gut-wrenching social issues and interact with the community that faces those issues for a week. The focus of my service trip was socioeconomic inequity with an emphasis on homelessness and hunger in the Atlanta, Georgia community. During the course of the trip, my group and I did various activities such as growing food items for local communities, gathering school supplies for kids in need, and more. However, the part of the trip that impacted me the most was when we went directly into the community to distribute food to the homeless and hungry with the Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless organization. I can honestly say this was one of the most life changing experiences I have ever encountered and I will never forget the impact this moment made on my life. We were able to speak to and engage with the homeless individuals, many of whom were living under bridges and in deserted areas. Many of them were struggling to support their families and had lost faith in themselves and in society. I was distraught, heartbroken, and shattered.

Despite all of this, at the end of the day, I was a little at ease because I helped make a difference in the life of a young man from New York. While running our rounds throughout the Atlanta community, the truck carrying the food items got stuck in a ditch, thus this gave us more time to get to interact with the people in the community and get to hear their stories. I saw a young man who looked about my age and I was taken aback. I surely couldn’t imagine myself at my age being homeless and not knowing where my next meal was coming from. I decided to speak to him to understand his story. It turned out that he grew up in poverty, losing most of his friends and family members to drugs and violence. He was working to change his life around by applying to jobs across the nation. However, he fell victim to a scam and was stranded in Atlanta, with no money, no food, and no place to stay. He had been there for about three nights wandering the streets and dealing with many unfortunate events. His story touched me so much that I spoke to one of my fellow trip participants about his situation. As this was going on, the owners of the Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless Organization happened to be driving by and they saw the jammed truck. My fellow trip participants encouraged me to speak to the owners to see if there was anything they could do to help this young man. It turned out that there was a program within the organization that could help the young man get back home. The day ended with the young man driving in the back seat of the owners’ vehicle. I vividly remember trying to fight back my tears as the car drove off but to no avail. The owners were kind enough to provide him with a home for the night and ultimately provided him with the resources to get back to his home in New York.

My group and I kept in contact with the young man and we found out that he is doing well, has a job, has his own apartment and is working extremely hard to get back on his feet. He was extremely grateful for everything my group and I had done for him. At that moment, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to make a difference and make an impact in the lives of individuals for the rest of my life, no matter how little this impact may be, whether through community service or in my future profession as medical doctor serving in underserved communities. This service trip inspired me in so many ways and taught me so much and is indeed one of my biggest accomplishments to date. I can never forget this experience. I discovered myself and learned that helping others fills me with the utmost joy.