Narrative Essay about Helping Others

When I think about my life, at least the small part of my life that I have lived so far, I realize how lucky I am. I realize that I have never had to worry about where I was sleeping that night, that I have never had to worry about having food on my table, and I realized that I have always had clothes on my back. But not all people are this lucky. There are millions of people all over the world that need help, people that might not have food that night, people that might not have a place to sleep, or clothes to wear. But the question that I keep asking myself is what have I, and what will I do to help these people in need. In this paper I will be talking about my early life of seeing philanthropic actions, the different types of philanthropic actions that I have done in my short life so far, and what else I will or will want to do to improve the lives of those in need.

Growing up I always watched my parents do good things. I watched my dad work seventy hours a week to try his hardest to help fix the environment. I watched my mom work to teach doctors new software so that those doctors could be more efficient in saving lives. I watched my parents give away their weekends at the little league football fields, my dad coaching and mom in the concessions. I watched them give thousands of dollars away in food and clothes to help those in need. My point to all of this is that, to them it doesn’t matter if it was their job or not. They both want to help and do good in this world and try to make a difference in whatever way they can. I remember when I was younger my mom said to me, “If you are able to help someone that it is your job to help them” I guess that stuck with me because ever since then I have tried to do things for the community and want to keep doing more for it. But why do I want to do these things and what will I do in the future, what are my values and what do I aspire to do based on those values?

While we could go over every time that I have said yes to rounding up to the dollar or said yes to donating a dollar at checkout, or every time that I have given money to the homeless. Instead, I want to talk about the things that I have done that really had meaning to me. We call these our values, and for me my first value that I hold close is caring for those in nursing homes. Did you know that over twelve percent of nursing home staff members have admitted to neglecting a resident in need? And with over 1.4 million people living in nursing homes that means that at a minimum that is almost 170,000 people that have been neglected. (https://www.nursinghomeabuse.org) Or did you know that the average ratio of worker to resident in nursing homes is 1 to 15, and that’s just during the day as it gets later it just gets worse. (https://aspe.hhs.gov) But what caused me to care? What caused me to make this one of my strongest values? Well, that’s my grandma, as my grandma got older like most, she moved into a nursing home. But it was what happened when she was in there that made me feel this way. She had only those who visited, I never saw any of the workers talking to her or doing fun things with her. No, they couldn’t because they had 15 other people to take care of. So, I started to volunteer there, at first it was just to see her more and make her happy, but then it turned into me loving to see all of them happy when I got to do fun things with them. Unfortunately, my grandma pasted but I didn’t stop helping them, I started to go to other nursing homes to help. Like the time me and my friends went to a prom that they were having so that we could hang out with them and have fun with them, to give them someone to talk to. I loved being able to spend time with them, so I thought to myself why not just work in a nursing home. I applied and got accepted and started as a cook at one of my local nursing homes. I loved it! I loved being able to make those residents happy and seeing the smiles on their faces. I loved being the cook, it allowed me to have time to connect with them and not have 15 other residents to take care of. It gave me time to connect, and time to understand them and help in any way I could.

Going on from about how I love and value the nursing homes and aspire to make them better in whatever way I can, let’s move on to my next subject that I hold close to my heart and value, that subject being my passion for the environment and keeping it healthy. Ever since I was younger my dad has always taught me the dos and don’ts when it came to making sure that I was doing the right things in my day-to-day life, to make sure that I am doing my part in making sure that the environment stays healthy. Now with my dad being an environmental engineer, I listened. I make sure that I recycled when I can, I make sure I don’t litter, I make sure that when I change the oil in my car to dispose of it properly. I do this because I see the importance of it, I see how hard that my dad has worked all my life to do his part, so I feel that it’s my responsibility to do the same so that one day my kids don’t have to deal with environmental problems caused by my generation. Did you know that over eight million tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year? (https://www.iucn.org/) That means that in my short life of just 18 years that over 144 million tons of plastic have been dumped into the ocean. You can look at the picture on the right from (http://www.oceansplasticleanup.com/) to better understand how much this really is. Then on the other hand there is only three million tons recycled each year, or only 54 million tons over the past 18 years. (https://www.epa.gov/) Information like this confirms to me how important it is for me to do my part in helping because every little bit helps, and we need all the help we can get if we are going to be able to save our environment. If you are wanting to learn how you can help, I recommend watching this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2YgM1Zw4_E&ab_channel=SmileandLearn-English), and if you are wanting to do your part by donating or volunteering visit (https://greendreamer.com/journal/environmental-organizations-nonprofits-for-a-sustainable-future) for ways to do so.

Stepping away from the environment, we now step into the last subject that I hold close and value. That subject being food insecurity. Like I stated above, I have never had to worry about if I was eating that night or where the food was coming from. But this isn’t true for everyone. There is over 38 million people in the US right now that are experiencing hunger in 2020. (https://www.feedingamerica.org/) Another way to look at this information is that around 12 percent of families in the US right now are going hungry. That fact and others can be found at (https://www.unitedway.org/blog/5-surprising-facts-about-hunger-in-america). I highly recommend reading it to gain a better understanding of the problem at hand in the US, or you can learn more by reading the chart I have given on the left from. (https://visual.ly) Over the years, my family and I have given a lot to those who are hungry by donating cans or non-perishable food items. But, I don’t want to stop there I aspire to find different ways to help those who are hungry. And you can too. You can volunteer at local food pantries, or by donating to places like (https://www.feedingamerica.org/).

Now that I have talked about a few topics that I value, lets talk about what I truly aspire to be someday. I aspire to be someone that makes a change in this world. I want to keep volunteering to help the environment, by planting trees and helping pick up our city. I want to continue to donate clothes to those in need. I want to be able to help those in nursing homes by giving them someone to talk to. And finally I want to help those who might not have steady meals on there table, by donating canned good.

To wrap this paper up I want to say that I truly do stand by what I have talked about in it. I want to say that I think that it is super important for all of us to help those who are less fortunate. That it’s important for all of us to realize that there is always someone or something that needs our help and that it doesn’t matter if it’s a million dollars or just one or if its everyday or just one day that anything that you do, makes a difference and with enough people making that difference that someday we just might be able to help all in need.