Last week a volunteer came in that volunteers during the day as well as in the evenings. Other coordinators find her difficult to work with, but I have really worked to get to know her. I love her. She came in and started talking about her father and her grandfather neither of whom she knew well. She said they both died young and she wished she knew more about them. So, I used my family history skills and found her father, grandfather, pictures, gravestones, and a world of new information to her. She hugged me and cried as she said thank you. Five minutes. That all took five minutes of my time, but that five minutes meant everything to me in that moment.
Today I am so excited about the Fourth of July. I love being able to celebrate the country that I LOVE. I had a volunteer come in and shake my hand when he saw me sitting at the desk even though it was the evening before one of my favorite holidays. He started telling me a story. He said there was a young man in the military in the 1940s that was the highest level of non-commissioned officer there was. His job was to train men and then go with them over to areas of Japan where the survival rate was dismal. Their company had a motto that basically meant loyalty forever. As he cried, my volunteer told me this man came home completely changed, but he took this motto and made it his lifestyle. He told me this story and fought through his tears because he was happy to see me and he was happy to come and volunteer with the patients even though tomorrow is a holiday.
I am proud to be an American. I am proud to live in this "promised land" and work on my own American dream. My life isn't perfect. My job isn't perfect. My country and it's leaders aren't perfect. But, with that being said, it has the potential to be if we only remember all it took for us to have our liberties. We must look at those around us with love and try to understand them because we each have a story to tell. Without getting to know and listening to my volunteers I wouldn't know their stories, and they would not have been able to change mine.
