Critical Journal for Volunteering of 7/17/15

            Today at the soup kitchen I did the same thing I usually do, cook the food and serve it to the people of the community that come in for a good meal.  Today I met a new volunteer, a pleasant man named Manual who was earning his PhD at the University of Chicago.  Manual had an accent, I think of Indian origin, so I assumed that he was an immigrant from India.   What interested me about meeting the new volunteer was that he added to the collage of people volunteering with me at the soup kitchen on Friday mornings; there was also Carlos, an immigrant from Costa Rica; Jorge, who was Hispanic and fluent in Spanish; the two sisters from Africa; a volunteer who was studying to be a father and also learning German; and a young African-American girl who sometimes joined us, who had just graduated high school.  What intrigued me was how everyone interacted with each other in such a manner that these differences didn’t affect how they spoke to each other, or what they were doing, or the fact that they were all very good friends that get together once a week and spend time together to help other people.  Being a part of that, I found myself wondering how I would stereotype myself, but then I realized that it didn’t matter, because what really mattered was the goal that we were achieving, of giving back to a community, and in the midst of this, stereotypes were diminished, and I got to forget who I was in the eyes of most people for a while; Amy Dillon, a student, with red hair, who is trying to pass a class by volunteering; and become a part of a greater whole; a group of volunteers who enjoy each other’s company and help the community while doing so.