Student Service Project Report Summer 2016
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou stated this and it has always been a quote that believe to be true, for my service project I babysat two little girls for free when their mother had nobody else and couldn’t afford to pay me. Of course to anyone of privilege this sounds like something they would never do. I for a short span of time never saw myself doing this either. Something overcame me however and I could not turn this young woman down.
She is a single mother as her husband who was a cop was killed in his line of duty. Her also being a cop works very hard and unpredictable hours and spends more money on child care then what she brings financially into the home. It all became too much and next thing she knew she found herself in a predicament and was forced to go into work without any money to pay someone. Now the reason why I did this obviously wasn’t for this service project. In the beginning I had something completely different planned. I chose to watch this five and eight year old for free because I felt an obligation to do something nice for this family because they had already been through enough in their short lifetimes. I would hope that someone would do the same for me. While I watched the girls I made them dinner, played with them & their puppy, and put them to bed. I also took it upon myself to help this mom out with her living situation. Obviously being a single mother is a very hard task, as raising kids are never easy in the first place.
I decided to clean up around the house to make a slight difference in this woman’s day. So when she got home she could just take a shower in crawl into bed instead of having to worry about the dishes, laundry, and cleaning up all of their dogs mess.
It had a huge impact on me because the pure joy I saw on the moms face when she came to home to a clean living room, kitchen, and her children tucked away in bed will be something that I will never forget. The quote by Angelou really does have specific meaning in this situation because those little girls aren’t going to remember what movie we watched or how I told them to brush their teeth before bet. They will remember how much fun and joy I brought into their home that one night that I was there to watch just them. Everything was focused on them.
Their mom isn’t going to remember what school I go to or what kind of job I have. She is going to feel happiness whenever she thinks about that one girl that got recommended by a friend that watched her two most prized possessions in her time of need. I hope they will always remember me as the girl that brought joy and laughter into their home. Hopefully I was the fun babysitter and when they talk to their friends they mention me. I am always proud to mention that I babysat these girls for no charge. I feel like not a lot of people can say they have or they would but to help out a member of the community I am apart of is an experience that no one can take away from me. Unless you have a younger sibling that your parents just expect you to watch without getting paid, I have never personally met anyone who has done this.
I would recommend it to anybody on an emotional level because it helps you grow as a person and see things for what they really are. When I become a mother and if I am ever in that kind of situation I would hope that somebody out of the kindness of their hearts would do the same for me. I feel like people are constantly forgetting that we are all just humans after all and when people need help instead of thinking about what is in it for them, they should think of others. I know that is a lot easier said than done but if everyone were to think that way the world would definitely be a better place. This by far is the best thing I have done with any of my years to date.
