My Service Experience

So I started a book drive, working with United Way and the book drive, Page it Forward, and I volunteered to be a representative from the high school. This weekend, I found out about a book sale near me that allowed for charities to come in after the sale and take what they wanted. I brought my friend along and we arrived to the place with about ten minutes until the sale ended and the charities could start. When I saw my school librarian, who told me about the sale and met me there to help me, I was really excited, but she seemed to have a purpose. As I looked around, I saw that there were tons of charities around and almost all of them looked like they wanted the same kind of books I wanted: children's books. My friend and I brought 2 small card board boxes to pack up the books we got, but as we looked around, we realized that we were nearly amateurs at this, because Bernie's Book Bank, another local charity, had a U-Haul in the back, 20-30 big bins and about 15 helpers with them. I was really nervous and I was afraid that I had no chance against this huge organization. So, as soon as the lady told us we could go into the warehouse, my friend and I pushed our way to the front and sprinted to the back of the room that held all the children's picture books. We literally filled our two tiny boxes up with books in nearly 5 minutes, and then found more and more boxes to fill. I just kept grabbing piles and piles of books, not even noticing what the were. My thought was "if the're for children, I want them". But that was exactly what all the other people around me thought! It was actually so intense and my friend and I were laughing at how intense it was and how much we were sweating, trying to load all of our boxes onto carts and into our truck, which at that point we had realized we had to pull up to the front, put all the seats down and start loading up the truck. I was amazed at how many books we kept getting. We probably made 10 or 15 trips back and forth to my car, each time with 5 or 6 boxes of books. The atmosphere in the warehouse was crazy and hectic, and many times ladies walked up to my boxes of books and taking my books! I was initially kind of mad, but then I realized something that I hadn't realized in my panic of trying to get the most books I could; every single person here was trying to do something good for others. I was astounded by how many charities were there, and I even talked to many of them, some who were getting books for a church drive, those who were going to ship books off to third world countries, and those were would resell the books to help raise money to fight against environmental problems. This moment, when the nice, old lady from a church book drive started looking through my books, has stuck with me since it happened and will stick with me forever. It truly amazed me that all of these people were so giving and that we were all trying to do the same thing: give. My service experience truly did change my life and made me realize that there are so many good people out there that all want to make a difference in someone else's life, just like I want to. The fact that I brought home about 40 boxes of books, (800-1000 books), which is truly amazing and exciting, was not nearly as rewarding as what I learned in that chaotic atmosphere in the warehouse stacked high with books: those who give are those that are good. I will never forget this experience and hope I have many more to come. It truly was inspiring.