highschool to college

   Today I attended H.O.T DOGS and it was so different from the volunteering I had done in High school. First everyone met up at Hein and their were so many people there, and in High school only some group would volunteer to help on a Saturday morning. I hadn't signed up,so I was sent to help out at My father's Farm. When I got there everyone was getting to work and seemed eager to help out. We pulled weeds out for some hours, in between getting water breaks and meeting new people. Everyone worked together to get things done and removing everything to have a clean working space. At the end of the service project, we had to do a reflection were we wrote down how the experience influenced us. Everyone had such nice things say and after we just talked. It was a really nice experience because I met new people and I knew that I was helping a good cause.
    In high school, the service projects were completely different. we got in, worked, and got out. We never really talked to the people we were helping or to each other. It seemed to me that most of the people that were volunteering really did not want to be there. Everyone complained about it being to early and wanting to go home. It really felt like people were being forced to go, instead of  free will. At the end of our service project everyone was gone as soon as we were dismissed.; no one stayed to talk about what the service project meant to them or how it influenced them. In High school it seemed like volunteering was just work that needed to be done.
     Now let's compare my High school volunteering experiences to my college volunteering experiences. The volunteering I did today impacted me much more than it used to because I got to interact with the people more and to get down and dirty. In high school we never volunteered at any places where you actually got dirty and sweaty, but instead people would use helping a teacher for service hours. The thing that was the most different to me was the fact that today after we were done we reflected on what we had just done. and that really made me appreciate the experience that much more. It just made going to college that more exciting, because I now know that the service projects I do at TLU will be more beneficial to me and everyone else.