T-Shirts and Revelations

Sometimes I forget myself for long stretches of time. I fail to consider who I am, what I am doing, and what sort of impact I am making on my surroundings. I allow my brain to fall into a sedentary state and live by routine. I go through the motions that constitute living my life and jump through hoops placed in front of me without thinking about why.

Initially, this service project at the art museum was just another one of those hoops. For weeks, I dutifully presented myself at the art museum every Friday and cleaned, made sugar skulls, and did odd jobs for the museum workers.

It was repetitive and boring, and I didn't feel like I was gaining anything from it. Though I was happy to help out at the museum because I've always enjoyed visiting there, the idea of service wasn't clicking for me the way that other TALH students had talked about. I was just moving along, completing my required service hours.

Then one day we were printing T-shirts for the kids in the Art After School program, which was a welcome change from making sugar skulls. I was looking at the shirts, which were tagged with the kid's name and teacher, and I began to realize that what we were doing was affecting other people. We were making some little kid's day just a bit better. Up until that point, I had only considered my service in terms of how it affected me. I realized why TALH students are required to log service hours. It really does change your perspective on the world.

(Disclaimer: I detest children. They are sticky, smelly, needy, and loud and if they had been present while we were printing their t-shirts I probably would have never come to this conclusion.)