Scott 1

Patrick Scott

Mr. Herman

American Government/ Period 6

1 May 2017

To Help Another Is To Help Yourself

One of my role models in my younger years had a set of rules for success; the last rule

was to give back to your community. I find some truth to that, this being that if one has a solid

foundation of character, they can build anything off it. Giving back doesnt always have a large

change immediately, some things take time, patience is a virtue. What is good is subjective.

Right and wrong is an opinionated idea that is interpreted through a filter of experiences. So to

proceed and to say that helping my community is a good thing to do, comes from me in my

entirety. All in all, what is the point of being on this earth but not to thrive with others to achieve

a common goal. Helping others and giving back to my community gives me a sense of

accomplishment, happiness, and pride.

There was a time in my life where I had nothing, a time I had to scavenge for recyclables

to eventually turn in for enough money to buy food. Having this I did want anyone else to have

to experience it if I could help it. In February of 2017 I packaged goody bags with my aunt

Debra. These bags included a bar of soap, a toothbrush and paste, socks, and a ham and cheese

sandwich we made ourselves. We drove around that day and handed them out to the homeless in

our community as we saw them. She lives right next to Downtown Sacramento so it is quite

heavily populated. We spent a good 2 hours preparing these bags but we found 17 people to give

a lending hand to in the hour and a half we drove around. She did this every year until her
 Scott 2

husband past away a couple of years ago. Me having a license thought this would be the perfect

opportunity to let her and let myself help.

Giving back in the way I did helps me see the world and my surroundings differently. It

forms a sort of selflessness in one and shows the importance of life. There is a beautiful fluidity

to the works and actions of the universe of how it happens. I think of a single personality as a

sphere, on this sphere like any other are an uncountably infinite amount of points. Every

experience you have creates some point on this, and when another person has had the same, these

spheres collide and a relation is discovered through similar or identical experiences. Seeing these

men and women reminded me of what it was like, Ive gotten so used to living in Placerville that

I had almost forgot. The faces of the people we gifted expressed absolute raw happiness.

Through all the hard times, cold nights and pain piercing hungry days, there was always a little

happiness in there. We started every interaction with asking how they were and ended every

interaction with a handshake. Most seemed surprised, but this only added to our accomplishment.

When you take a breathe in life and just go out to help the ones that need it, it rewards you in not

materialistic things but what matters, your character. To provide and not expect anything in

return is one of the few idealistic things we can achieve and when it is, it spurs a happiness like

no other. Its not even because of what youre doing but because you see them, it makes it all

worth it. Knowing that you could, and do help someone breaks down social barriers, you build

trust and understanding with an absolute stranger you just met 5 minutes ago.

Ive developed several universal paradoxes in my time and one is that, there is always a

lesson to be learned even if that lesson is there isn't. This binary experience resulted in the

existence of a deeper conclusion. I observed that people have a tendency to isolate themselves
 Scott 3

from their surroundings in the sense of publicity. One of these surroundings being our family in

poverty. Sometimes, these people cant help their situation and have no clue of how to climb out

of the hole they are in. A few of the 17 we had given assistance to, they had, what seemed to be,

a lag in response and awareness. Whether this be from prior drug use or birth, I could not tell nor

assume. This brought attention to the drug epidemic our nation is facing yet not many like to

admit. Our politicians rarely address this growing issue even though the ones in poverty have

their families ripped apart so frequently over these substances. My family is one that has had to

suffer this reality and I will admit, it is the individual but there is a reason that these people are

using. The important question is Why? Once we discover where the problem lurks we can

proceed to its end. Its easy to dismiss these individuals as less than others but in all truth they

are just as human as anyone else. No one is to say which life is more valuable than another. Its

with this mentality, that when I saw innocent children on the news being carried from the attacks

in Syria, that I could not stand around and let this happen if I could contribute to helping them.

Because at the end of the day, I won't think about that little money I lost out on. Id be haunted

by knowing that I could have prevented the end of their lives. The countries of the world create a

global community, just as I helped the homeless in Downtown, I want to defend the rights of

women and children all around from shore to shore.