Since I was a little kid, I, like many of the rest of you Horizon students, have been someone who loves to be involved. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group or a club that I didn’t, at some point, want to join. In fact, I’ve often had to limit myself from trying to join EVERYTHING. Although I’ve tried my hardest, I’m still pretty busy and I often don’t have a lot of "free time" but, that’s just how it goes. To me, my "free time" is all of my activities. They’re something that I really enjoy and that’s what makes all of the rushing around and business worthwhile. After all, there’s never a dull moment!
When I was in kindergarten, I did one of the best things I could ever do: I became a Spark in the Girl Guide program. I loved it and I stuck with it right up through, becoming a Brownie, Guide and Pathfinder and finally earning my Canada Cord. Now, I volunteer with the Guides as a Junior Leader. Girl Guides is a great program that I’m so happy to be a part of. Through it, I’ve made friends, earned badges, gone camping and helped my community, too. Girl Guides is something that really showed me how great volunteering really is. I love helping out with the girls at our weekly meetings. It’s a great experience to see them enjoying themselves and, the truth is, I have a lot of fun, too! Even though I’m the only person at Guides who’s my age, it really doesn’t matter. I have such a great time volunteering that the time just slips away. It feels really great to know that I’m helping my community. It doesn’t hurt that I’m having a blast while doing it, either!
Besides Girl Guides, I’m also actively involved in my church. I volunteer with the services, I’m a member of the Junior Choir and I teach Sunday School, too. My friend and I share a class of about 10 kids in Grades 3 to 6. Even though I enjoy it, this can often be very stressful! Sometimes the kids don’t pay attention or just won’t listen and calm down. There are days when I come home from church and just want to drop! Despite all this though, I would never consider giving it up. Being a teacher has taught me a lot and I really do enjoy it. I’ve learned how to be patient with the kids and how to figure out the best way to keep their attention. Most of all, I’ve learned that sitting down and just doing "schoolwork" isn’t going to cut it! Whenever it’s my turn to plan our lesson, I try to come up with creative ideas like crafts and games. It doesn’t always work but, at least it keeps the kids’ attention and they have fun. If that happens, I consider the lesson a mission accomplished! It’s a great feeling to know that I’m volunteering by helping with and contributing to my Sunday School and church. Volunteering, especially teaching young kids, isn’t always easy but, to me, when you know you’re helping somebody, that’s what makes it all worthwhile.
At my school, I’m part of the Tutoring for Tuition Program, where I tutor another student in my grade in math. I like being a part of this program because I believe that it’s really nice that students can be tutored by their peers. Giving someone that little bit of extra help to pass that test or understand that topic gives you a good feeling inside. After all, if you understand, why shouldn’t you help someone else achieve the same thing?
In addition to tutoring, I’m also on the Math Team at my school. We’re a group of students that get together to participate in several math contests that take place in schools all across the district. I know it sounds nerdy and hard to believe but, I really do have a good time at our meetings. We work together in teams of four to solve a series of questions to score more points than the other teams. Unfortunately, some of these questions can be really tricky so, we often end up just guessing the answer or coming up with something totally wrong! You’d think that this would stress us out or frustrate us but, we usually just end up having a good laugh about it. I actually look forward to our meetings and the fun we have. The best part is, it’s educational, too!
Something else I’m a part of at my school is the art and music program. I’m in Art Club, Choir and Band, where I play flute. I love doing art and music so, these are perfect activities for me. Art Club is pretty low-key and we start and finish projects without hardly any deadlines or schedules. Right now, we’re working on a large tile mosaic that is going to go on the wall in our school. In Choir and Band, we participate in our school concerts and concerts in the community. One of my favourite parts of band is going to and competing in the Kiwanis Music Festival. It feels really good to know that all of our hard work pays off in the end when we participate in the competition. It doesn’t hurt that we get a day off school either!
Finally, my last activity I’m going to talk about is Leadership Group. I know I talked about it in my first post but, it’s such an important activity to me. I really feel strongly about what we do by helping out our school and community. We’re always planning some kind of school event or fund-raiser for an outside group. Leadership Group has given me the opportunity to volunteer and make a difference in ways that I had never done before. That’s why it is so important to me.
Now that I’ve finished writing this it really seems that I’m a part of so much. I guess that’s because involvement and volunteerism are both so important to me. When I write everything down like this, it seems like I don’t have a moment to breathe but, when I’m actually doing everything, it doesn’t seem like that at all! I love and enjoy everything that I’m involved in and I can’t even imagine what my life would be without these activities. I seriously don’t know what uninvolved people do all of the time. They miss out on so much! My experiences from being involved have made me who I am today and I know that if I wasn’t involved I would be a totally different person. My activities and volunteering experiences always have been and always will be a huge part of who I am.
