How Volunteering Changed My Life

When I was nine, my parents decided it was time for my family to move. So we packed up our bags, said goodbye to family and friends, and boarded an airplane that took us half way around the world and released us in California.

I remember it was Christmas, and all the stores were full of presents and lights and decorated in Christmas colors. That was my first glimpse of Christmas, and it was just as glamorous as the movies depicted. We drove down the streets, with the trees adorned with lights and couples holding hands and I remember thinking that America must actually be as wonderful as everyone promised it would be.

But that mentality did not last long. School started, and I stepped into a world I didn’t understand. English sounded like barbaric mumblings, the writing on the board looked like strange drawings, and the people- the selfish, selfish people- were too much for me to handle.
My first year in America was hell. I suffered from such loneliness that I could never have comprehended before I felt it first-hand. I sat in class listening to sounds I did not understand. I read alone during lunch. I sat by myself during recess. I went home and spent all day trying to complete homework in a language I was not even close to understanding. I studied the spelling of words I did not even know the meaning of. I had to write stories in a foreign language. I had to learn how to write cursive when I didn’t even know print. It was hell.

It wasn’t only that the work was hard and that the only people I spoke to were my mom, dad, sister and brother. It was that I never before knew loneliness. I always had friends and I was part of a large family that met regularly and got alone wonderfully. I couldn’t understand why I was so hated. I couldn’t understand why everyone turned their backs on me.

That time passed, however. I slowly got friends, learned the language, and the all-consuming loneliness left me. I became active in volunteering, inspired by the despair I knew and wanted to prevent others from knowing. Since the beginning of my volunteer career, I have organized fundraisers, participated in community service activities, and spread awareness about important issues. I am now entering my fourth year as a member of the Community Action Team, a group of high school students committed to spreading volunteerism. I am president of three volunteer clubs at my school: START (Students Taking Action Real Time), a club dedicated to volunteering in general, STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), this is a chapter of a national organization dedicated to stopping the genocide in Darfur, and WOP (World Of Peace), a club dedicated to aiding peace activists around the world. I created a Peer Counseling Program at my school that is now being worked into the requirements of At Risk Students. I have spent a month working in an orphanage in Lima, Peru. I have helped organize classes about the importance of volunteerism and have taught middle school students about disaster preparedness. For three years now, I have organized a fundraiser called Race for Water, which is dedicated to raising money to build wells in Africa. Each year the profit from the race has doubled, and last year I had over 100 participants. And I still remember what inspired me to make change, for once you feel something so terrible, you can never go back into blissful ignorance.

I understand that the children in my class weren’t evil- they were just selfish. I know I would have been no less self absorbed if an American girl came to my school in Israel. But I also know that it is wrong. And I know that we, as humans, don’t grow out of that selfishness. We want our I-pods and our Mochas and our movies. We so easily forget all the people struggling in the world to survive. Three dollars can save a woman in Darfur for a year! A year!

And so I urge you to remember those you love. And I urge you to remember the times that you felt pain. And to act to help those that are still suffering. I know that part of what makes me such a committed volunteer is the fact that I know how it feels not to belong, not be cared for. Feeling pain or loneliness or despair can sometimes teach us great lessons. I know it is so easy to just forget and be happy. But we can’t. We have to fight for each other because if you don’t fight when you are strong and happy, no one will fight for you when you are weak and sad.


Osnat Oron
San Rafael, CA