All Good Things Must Come to an End

Today was my last day of volunteering. For the last few months I've been volunteering for an after school program called Teen Night Tuesdays. It largely consists of adolescent refugees who have been resettled in Seattle with their families. Many of the kids are from African or Middle Eastern countries. We met every Tuesday night at a local church and had dinner, played games and talked with the kids about the kinds of challenges they faced at school. The goal of the group was to help the kids adjust to being in America and encourage positive social interaction with their peers.

I have so enjoyed my time with TNT - even though there were definite challenges the overall experience was incredibly rewarding. The kids I met had such a wonderful sense of humor despite their situations and I never tired of talking and interacting with them. I'm really going to miss it. It was the one time of the week when I could completely stop thinking about my own problems and troubles and just enjoy playing a game of soccer or doing an art project. It was the only time of the week where I felt like I truly lived in the moment, focusing on the here and now, rather than the future and my endless to-do list.

I loved TNT because it gave me that respite from the rest of my life - I was there to help some pretty amazing kids deal with challenging situations and in the end I think they ended up helping me deal with my own challenges. Volunteering and giving of oneself to help others is an amazing thing, a part of my life have only recently discovered and something I want to never lose. It makes you feel alive.