Blog 1

    Previous to this history class, my favorite volunteer work I've experienced was church bingo. My childhood best friend and I had to get volunteer hours for national honor society, so we went to her church's bingo night. During church bingo, my friend and I handed out raffle tickets, handed out food, and played bingo with elderly at the end. I also ran into an old teacher and some of my dad's old friends throughout the night. My old teacher ended up winning one of the raffle baskets which was a fun memory to watch because I usually don't get to see that side of my teachers. That teacher always used to talk about her husband having cancer and it was heartwarming to see that they were together having fun, and he was doing well. It was also in general a heartwarming experience, as I knew and got to know some of the people around me and got to talk more with elderly's and connect with them, as it's harder to connect with older people because of the age barrier. I feel like talking to some people I already knew, and doing it with a friend, really warmed me up to the experience and I learned a lot from it. Specifically, I learned more about protecting people's respect and dignity and how it's important to help the elders even if they didn't understand how the game worked or didn't realize they had won. I also learned about the aspect of helping others without an incentive in return. Which kind of relates to what we're about to learn in class right now with monasteries. I feel my experience and what we're learning right now relate since monasteries were all about helping people like the poor, guests, and valued hospitality and taking care of others. Another way my experience related with our class was in the religious aspect since I was volunteering at a church, and monasteries were also all about religion and believed that salvation was achieved by helping people. Overall, through my previous volunteering experience I learned a lot about helping people with no incentive in return, and about maintaining respect, dignity, and forming connections.

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Blog 3

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