CND Experience

Nicholas Zwobot

Dr. Ellis

EN*101

Service Blog #1

The Strength of Hurting Children

          I have not started my Loyola volunteer experience yet for this semester so in lieu of talking about that, I will be talking about my most recent service project. I worked for Camp New Dawn, which was an opportunity to take my past experiences and hardships and help those who have suffered traumatic losses. After arriving, we are show to our campers and where we are staying for the weekend. We jump right in with many group activities and talking about who has been lost and how to handle it. One of my favorite parts is when the kids were able to write letters to the one that they lost. This allows them to let out all their emotions and get everything down on paper. The kids can either read their letter or throw their letter in the fire. This experience really helps one to see that no matter what to keep on fighting and never give up.

            When I read “The Birthmark”, Aylmer began to talk about the birthmark and how he thinks that it is an imperfection I began to think of all the campers. I thought of them because so many people in their lives have told them that they are useless and that they have so many imperfections, but in reality, that is just a personal opinion of that person. This is an example of how often people strive to find the only flaw. In the story, they speak about how when the Georgiana blushes that the birthmark is not noticeable, and once again many of the children try to hide their pain behind a smile or a good personality, but their hurt will always be there no matter what is done. The one difference that I see is in the end of the story, Aylmer gives Georgiana a potion to fix her birthmark, unlike Georgiana the kids at this camp do not try to get rid of their pain, but they accept it and keep it as part of them, because it is who they are and it defines them.

            The second writing I read was “I Wandered Closely as a Cloud” this is an extremely beautiful poem, while reading this I thought the hearts of the volunteers that I met. The way that Wordsworth describes how beautiful his surroundings are I think of how all of the volunteers have beautiful hearts and they lighten up the day during dark and sad times. All of those who participated help those who see the world as dark, and then turn that into a beautiful surrounding like Wordsworth is describing. When Wordsworth says how he “wandered lonely as a cloud” this is how the campers arrive because many do not know what they are going to experience, but what they walk into is a truly beautiful and loving environment.

            Finally, I read “The Yellow Wallpaper”, this story is odd, but I am going to focus more on how the narrator progressively goes insane. I am not truly applying this to any specific experience I had while I was doing my service, but more when it comes to how these kids can face this in the eyes of a loved one, or in their own minds. Many kids had faced this fact and a lot of this has come from the same scenarios such as the narrator has faced, especially when it comes with others around them, such as the narrators husband. It truly disheartening to see how real a story can be and how the most traumatic scenes are a part of a human’s life.

            I loved the volunteer work that I did, because it allowed me to see how precious life is, and it can be taken away from someone within seconds. So many people do not understand this and allow for them to get sucked into many situations that they shouldn’t be in. Life decisions are filled with cause and effect and who the decisions affect can sometimes be the worst part.