Reflections

It's hard to pin-point specific things that I've learned so far while working with the DeLand community partners. It's not necessarily just one piece of advice that I was given or a lesson that someone taught me, it's more like a piece of the community that was given to me. For instance, I've never been a patient person. The only time I can really sit still and wait is when I'm sitting on a bank fishing. However, last semester when tutoring kindergarten students at Woodward Elementary school I learned how to be patient, very patient. It's not that it's a tenuous job, or even very complicated but the effort that you have to put into making a child see excitement in learning is more than you can imagine. So something I might not even be passionate about, teaching children to read, I've learned is something to be passionate about, if not for my sake than for the sake of those I'm helping.

These days I've found a community partner I enjoy working with and while I find good things in all that they want me to do, I've come to learn that some of the most menial jobs in my opinion are the most drastic jobs for them. If it weren't for those who are willing to do the dirty work and pay attention to nitty, gritty details there would be no successful operations.