Project 1 (First Draft)

Austin Balon

Mat Wenzel

ENC 2135

1 July 2017

The Helping Hand

Friends have always played a strong factor in my happiness. I can remember even as a child playing tackle football in my front yard with my friends. It got very competitive, but in the end we all had our laughs, our high fives, and spent a lot of the time encouraging each other. Even though there was never a game without trash talk. Even though I’ve grown older, along with my friends, there are even more things to do. Last summer I’ve had one the most rewarding and memorable experience with a group of my friends. Not quite knowing what to expect we all packed up and headed toward Kentucky for a camping trip. However, this was not a typical camping trip. We were on a mission team that would be attempting to help construct a home for a family that was in desperate need of helping hands. Not having any prior experience on constructing a home I was a little apprehensive. However, we decided to tackle this mission to the best of our abilities. Even though I went on this mission to be a helping hand I was also impacted through the experience. I realized the importance of humility, friendship, and memories.

On the second to last day of the trip we had all received shirts that were given to us by the company we had went through to organize this mission. As others were wearing their shirts there was an image on the back that really stuck out to me. This image involved a helping hand washing someone’s foot. I believe this image resembled the exact meaning to why I was there. This meaning was to provide a helping hand. However, this was not the only impact this image had. It had also resembled the humility each of us had displayed. We had all taken a week out of our busy summer to help others. However, I did not regret this one bit. The humility displayed was very rewarding as I saw the family become more happy as the house was became closer and closer to being complete. This happiness they displayed had meant even more due to the sadness they had recently had in their lives. They had recently lost their granddaughter, who had been living with them. Her death was to believed to be caused by mold that was growing in their former trailer home. This was a reason they needed to construct a new home. Being able to help them in that time was certainly a great opportunity and with every smile that came across the families face I could not help, but feel pure joy.

As the week progressed I thought it was amazing how a group of teenagers were not arguing, but actually becoming closer. We had many laughs, but also had many serious talks about things we have never all really talked about. This showed the trust we all had between each other had been growing. I was very moved by some of the stories some of my friends had spoken on. This trust was also helpful when we were building the house for I had to rely on my friends to help me whenever needed and also they had to rely on me to help them. Through this experience of helping others we were all able to connect and become closer. This had made me wish the trip would not come to an end.

Thinking back to this trip, it is great to have memories with some of my closest friends and have a strong connection through the experience. The memories created on this trip have helped me gain an appreciation for friendship, but also an appreciation for helping those around me. There are so many opportunities each and every day to help someone and the memories I have from this trip definitely encourage me to do whatever I can to provide a helping hand to someone. The experience has instilled a strong passion in me to help others through whatever medium that may be. The trip also gave me a passion to experience things in life with friends and share the memories rather than just having them to myself. Even though the experience has already passed the memories are what keeps the experience so important to me.Now whenever I go through my closet and see the shirt with the logo of a hand washing someone’s foot I am reminded of the trip and the memories made on the trip, but I am also reminded of the importance of friends and also the importance of helping others. This image is definitely one that brings me back into the experience I had during the summer of 2016.