​You're never alone

In all honesty, this wasn’t the original English class I had signed up for. My class that I signed up for actually got cancelled just about a month before fall semester started. This was the only option that fit with my schedule during drop/add week. When I saw the requirements of the class, I was really intrigued. I loved the fact that it was a volunteer based course revolving around helping the Tallahassee community. I had volunteered all throughout high school and it’s something I enjoy so I was really excited that I would be able to continue that aspect of my life in college.  I became thankful that this was the class I was able to take because my only other option would have been to take a class about cats and I have no idea how that would’ve worked out.

I expected this class to be a learning experience. Whenever and wherever you volunteer, you always learn something new. Everywhere you go there’s a different experience and they impact you in different ways. Sometimes, you can dislike where you go, or find it boring and other volunteer opportunities make you happy and smile and potentially change your outlook on life. I knew that by taking this class I would have a different experience because this would be the first time that I volunteered outside of my local community. Outside my high school, outside all the extracurricular that gave the opportunity to volunteer, in a way outside my comfort zone. Back home, I would always volunteer with someone I knew, so I knew I’d be a little anxious doing it by myself for the first time, but that’s what growing up is, learning and experiencing new things every day. After experiencing the class for the semester it was definitely different than what I had expected or anticipated.

My volunteer experience wasn’t what I expected and I didn’t necessarily get what I wanted out of it, but then again I don’t know what I wanted. It was an experience; I did end up learning a lot about domestic violence. I also learned about myself. When it took weeks for Jessica to respond, I had to learn how to handle a situation where something didn’t happen automatically. I learned that I had to be consistent because people get busy and forget to respond to e-mails and phone calls. I’m usually the kind of person that if you don’t answer the phone I won’t try again and I’ll just wait for a call back, but I learned that that’s not necessarily the best idea. I shouldn’t be shy to reach out to people especially when I don’t know them. What’s the harm in sending another e-mail or leaving a voice mail?

I believe I also learned that my writing can be very diverse. It can either be strong at one point in a paper and then completely lose substance in another part of it. I think that with this class I hopefully learned to balance it out better. Re-writes were life savers. If we didn’t have them I don’t know what my grade would be. I love them because they show you your paper in a different way and by having another opinion, it shows what can improve. Peer reviews aren’t always helpful so having a teacher feedback and the chance to re-write it was really appreciated.

You learn a lot in this class. You gain a greater outlook on life and with all these organizations, your eyes really widen to what’s happening in the community and ways that you can help out. I think I personally benefited because I learned about a cause that affects so many people my age. It increased my awareness about my community and the girls a part of it. I now know ways that I can hopefully pass on to others in case they ever need any of the services that a domestic violence organization can help. This class really shows that when a community gets together, even if it’s just our English class community, a lot can happen, so many new things are learned and we students can make a difference.

The project that taught me the most was the mini-ethnography. Although it was far from my favorite it made me dig deeper into the organization I was volunteering for. The most important thing I learned is that while we each have our own individual lives, there is so much more going on out in the world, even in our Tallahassee community and we as students can make an impact. I really enjoyed the concept of the class because I like volunteering and I hope that skills I gained during this semester will help me in the future whether it’s reaching out to someone to volunteer or improve my writing styles throughout the rest of my academic life.