Random Musing: Possible Personal Statement about Cause

I have not been to the American Samoa to help young children. I am not a Teen Ambassador at the United Nations, nor have I spent the better part of my adolescent years involved in the Peace Corps. I have, however, spent an adequate amount of time involved in local activities, including Book Buddies and peer tutoring. The young children I have met have provided me with insight that only such budding human beings can provide. I may not have come away with an intrinsic desire to teach, nor have I suddenly decided that I would like to bear a houseful of children. At the tender age between the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence, I realized my fascination with the humanities. I became enthralled in the teachings of Freud, by Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and by Jung's personality tests. Honestly, I could recommend no experience more valuable than that of interacting with children. Through Book Buddies, a program in which a younger child is paired with an older, literate reading partner, I was taught patience. I was also introduced to the pleasure of diffusing knowledge upon a child. I was introduced to the power of words, man's greatest invention--and perhaps the biggest difference between homo sapiens and the creatures around us. With the help of peer tutoring, the patience I had cultivated was tested, sometimes brought to the limits, by the frustration that comes along with the inability to explain something. Usually, the latter is something so clear to oneself, yet so irritatingly foreign to another. I found ways around the conventional methods of teaching, spent hours developing examples that might induce sudden epiphanies in my pupils. I came up with examples, analogies, and hypothetical situations for them to relate algebra and social studies to. Variables became love interests, the rational numbers around them became rivals that must be removed. The infuential, though often deceased, individuals that fill the past became characters who were closer to the heart; the founding fathers became video game protagonists and the revolutionaries became their weapons. Since the beginning of my involvement in such activities, I have learned invaluable lessons, the likes of which have certainly contributed to who I am now. I have never considered myself as someone who is "good with kids." I still do not, but I see them in a new light. No longer do I cringe at the thought of reading to a first grader. Rather, I smile, knowing that I have the chance to change his or life forever.