"Most young people, wherever they live and no matter what their socioeconomic status, are not involved in community service regularly or even occasionally" (People for the American Way). All my life I have lived around people who were selfish, conceited, vain, and arrogant. I guess it all comes down to where I live, but when I got to college I came to the realization that most of the world is like this, except for a few people here and there. Not realizing what you have, coming to the realization that there are people in the world worse off than you are, and thinking that the world revolves around you are my most important pet peeves. We often take for granted all the things that we have in life, and I just want to find a way to open people's eyes and make them realize some of these things. I believe that community service provides an excellent opportunity for people to look beyond themselves, and this process is a very important part of our continuing education.
In all four years of high school, it was required that we perform twenty-five hours of community service each year before being promoted to the next grade level. It was impossible for us to graduate without those 100 hours of community service. My high school was one of two high schools in Raleigh that made community service a requirement, and quite frankly, I am very proud and thankful to my high school for this. Doing those 100 plus hours of community service not only opened my eyes, but I am sure it also opened the eyes of others to the problems in today's world. Many of the community service activities in which I was involved included coaching a girls soccer team, serving meals at the soup kitchen, working at a church that was in need of repair, helping the elderly in a geriatric community, serving in a hospital, and many more.
However, performing community service was not the only thing that opened my eyes to some of the problems that arise in our society.
