Reflection

Wow i can see how addictive this is. So i am here at the Crisis Center doing my usual 2.5 hours a week helping out little kids who are having social/life issues about stuff that just seems really trivial... orginally i started volunteering here because volunteering is required for med school and i chose here because i didnt want to be bored. Sounds really humanitarian huh... just because i had to, but in the short time (roughly 5 months) that i have come in on Fridays i have realized that growing up makes you forget just how hard it is to be a kid. I've realized that as we grow we realize what kind of problems are small and what kind of problems can have a major impact on our life, but when we were younger... we didn't have this knowledge or experience. All those hormones that flood into the body as it hits puberty, lots of friends trying to attain some kind of social status, family issues... everything seems like it's going to bring the whole world crashing down if it doesn't turn out as one hopes. Realizing this has caused me to reflect on my rather dry outlook on life and my general uncompassionate nature. I am really working on my ability to show empathy and understand that even if it's not a problem to me, it's a problem to this little child who is upset. I feel like my short time here has given me the opportunity to grow and i feel like the longer i stay, the more chances i'll have to learn new and interesting things about life, people, and how to better my short stay on this planet.