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“Anyone who knows me well knows that I frequently forget to smile but recently, I realized what a smile can do. Yesterday, I had the opportunity, thanks to my internship, to volunteer in the kitchen at the Bowery Mission. Preparing and serving food for 250 people in a short amount of time didn’t exactly make me want to smile. Every time we repeated “Hi, how are you? Would you like some salad?” and they responded “I’m starving. Thank you so much, I’ll take anything you’ll give me,” it broke my heart. These people (of different ages, races, genders) are in need & yet they could smile and thank us for spending our time there. I don’t even want to say that it made me more thankful for the life I’m blessed enough to live, but instead, it made me just want to be that much more compassionate and caring. Just a bittersweet reminder to choose joy over circumstance and share love & happiness with everyone you encounter.”

I wrote this for my Facebook status the day after visiting the Bowery Mission. It was truly an eye-opening, life changing experience and I’m so thankful for this internship allowing me to be able to be a part of this. Since genOn works on engaging youth through service, they figure that we should practice what we preach & volunteer ourselves. I’ve volunteered before in my local community but I wasn’t prepared for this at all. To see how many people have giving hearts and are concerned with feeding, clothing, mentoring, and sharing happiness with those less fortunate really touched me. The amount of people that we fed that day was shocking to me even though I know that NYC has a huge homeless population. I just didn’t figure that all of these people would come and be so open about their vulnerability. I realized the necessity to be compassionate and understanding and offer your time whenever possible. The smiles and well wishes I received from people who’re not in the best place in life currently felt like treasure I should never take for granted. I still think of the faces I saw that day and wish that they’re doing well.

Getting to volunteer as genOn encourages put a meaning behind the designs I’m working on for them and made it even more important that I help to create content that is not only visually appealing but can also inspire others to get out and do for others.