What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.
-Helen Keller
Being a manager for a McDonalds is a rough place. Whenever the homeless come in and ask for things I would usually try to help them out and give them food. I learned my lesson not to do that ever. For some reason if you ever help homeless people out, they will always return wanting more, or they will screw you over in some way, at least that’s what my experience has been when I go out of the way to help people in general. For months, sometimes I would base the quote “No good deed goes unpunished” on my life because every time I would try to go out of my way to help someone for good, I would always get screwed over somehow. This stopped me from going out of my way to help people for a long time. When I found out that we had to do a service project for my history class I was skeptical to help at first. I realized that it was a mandatory to do for the class. I started to think less selfishly about myself and said to myself, no matter what happens you are helping people or at least making an effort to do so. This was my chance to break my negative selfish cycle of not helping people. So, I went to thinking what would I make for my service project. For my service project, I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies for the veterans. I probably baked about 150 of those tasty things in total. Ever since I was a kid I always knew that Nestle’s chocolate chip cookies could cure any bad day. That’s why I chose them to help feed the veterans at Veterans Village. For some reason, I knew that this was going to be different than any other good deed I have done for others. I have always had the utmost respect for veterans or military personnel. I think that’s what made me have faith that I was doing something really good for people less fortunate, because they served the country and risked their lives for us. I think that helping serve the veterans with food touched my heart in a good way, I haven’t felt that in a long time. There is something about going to help someone that is less fortunate than you are that just gives you a good feeling inside that makes all life problems not seem that bad, especially when people really appreciate you going out of your way to do good things. I wanted to take the time out to feed the veterans because it’s something that I don’t usually do because of my bad past experiences. I learned from this that I have to take and look at each experience differently, and not to judge past experiences on future giving opportunities, That I should know in my heart that I am trying to do good giving to give no matter the consequence of what could happen. This has led me to a higher place in my own wisdom with things. I think it relates to the quote at the beginning of the essay. We all have kindness to give, we have to find it within ourselves not to look for it elsewhere. I think as a society we need to be more giving to those that have sacrificed so much for us, we need to swallow our pride and give to our neighbors in need. I think the Veterans enjoyed every last one of those chocolate chip cookies. I hope it took them back to good memories in their past of enjoying cookies and the good things that happen in life. I know I had a positive impact on them I hope we as a group feeding them helped them think more positively on the world and have faith that there are good people in the world that are willing to give to the needy.
