I just had the best Spring Break–did you??
In early November, I received an email suggesting I apply for the Alternative Spring Break program at the U. I had never given much thought to the Bennion Center, or the services that it offered, including the ASB program, and almost dismissed the email entirely. After my friends decided to figure out plans for Spring Break–the idea of going on a week long service trip sounded more and more intriguing and spending my free time doing some good seemed refreshing. I went through the list of different trips that were offered and applied the next day. I opened my email a couple of weeks later and found out that I had been accepted to participate in Seattle, Washington and would be working with and learning about the homeless, my first trip choice!
I quickly paid the trip fee and was ready to go. The time between finding out about the program and actually leaving, went by faster than I ever could have dreamed- but not nearly as fast as the actual trip went.
We spent our days volunteering at different services around the city of Seattle, providing many different resources-meal prep and serving, filing paperwork, taking surveys at food banks, organizing donations, and something as simple as being a friend to those who have experienced this trauma. As good as it felt to provide what we could, it was also extremely sad to learn how these people ended up in the situations that they did- and not have any real way to impact their lives in the short week long time period.
I have alwasy been very passionate about helping the homeless and was honored to be let into their lives and see a first hand account of how being homeless changes lives. I never imagined that I would thoroughly enjoy an entire week of volunteering, let alone during Spring Break, but I couldn’t be happier with my decision to participate this year, and would HIGHLY reccomend everybody try to experience this alt break experience just one time in their college career.
I 100% think the best way to begin to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others–which I had the privilege of doing this year. I’m hoping this trip didn’t only impact my life so much but the hundreds of people my trip companions and I got to work with.