Clothes, Clothes, Clothes

There are only 5 weeks before Spring Break, and I am super excited. Time is flying by and before I know it I’ll be in D.C. Before going to D.C., we are going to do community service at local church. Next Sunday, I have to but up a 7 a.m. and we will be heading to Corozan Ministries. Even though I will not like being up that early in the morning, I am excited to go help the community. I have never been that big on community service before but I think I am starting to turn a new leaf.

Since D.C. is coming up so quickly, one of my biggest concerns is packing. We are only allowed one carry on bag! This is a huge dilemma to me because I am an over packer. If I am going to stay overnight at someone’s house, I will pack enough clothes to last a week. I am already stressing of how I’m going to fit 2-3 weeks worth of clothes for a 9-day trip into one tiny bag. I know this is a superficial thing to worry about because we are going to D.C. to help people who do not even own 2-3 weeks worth of clothes. This is why I am excited for this trip because it will give me new a perspective on life because my problems are no where as critical as other people in the world.

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Preperation

"Poverty is a secret club. In our rich, by the bootstraps society, being poor is a mortal sin and blight on you and your family"

The quote above is from an article entitled “Being Poor” by Alia Ganaposki. It is about Alia and her experience as a low-income student in college. This is one of the many articles I have to read in preparation for the ABS trip which are included in the binder pictured above. For ABS, there are 5 girls going the trip(including me) and 3 group leaders. We have been having 1- hour weekly meeting since January 18th to prepare for the trip and learn more about each other and the issues of homelessness and poverty before we go D.C. Each week we read an article about poverty or homelessness and discuss what we learned from it. These meetings are a great idea because they expose us to the issue and give us some insight before we go to D.C. In a few weeks, we are also going to do a service project in San Antonio to get experience helping homeless people in our community. I really like the way the program is set up because you are not just expected to bond with a group of random people the week of spring break. This allows us to get to know each other and our opinions of different type of issues. I can’t wait for March 13th to get here!

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Cancun? Florida? Washington D.C.?

Instead of going home for a week and being unproductive, I wanted to do something memorable and worthwhile for spring break. I saw a sign in Coates about the Alternative Spring Break (ABS) trip in October. It caught my eye because I had already been thinking about what I was going to do for spring break. I went to a meeting about it and learned that over spring break a group of Trinity students would go to D.C. and do community service work helping the homeless. Going to D.C. and giving back to the community seemed like the perfect way to accomplish my goal of doing something productive. Therefore, I filled out an application and paid the $700 (which paid for airfare, hotel, and food) dues. By the end of October, I had my spring break figured out.
I am very excited because I love D.C. and know it will be a great trip. I have been to D.C. for the Inauguration, but I felt like I really didn't get to see D.C since it was very crowded that week. I think by going on this trip I will actually get to experience D.C. and get to see another side of the city that most people don’t get to experience. I feel like this trip will help me grow and open my eyes to the world by doing something completely new and out of my comfort zone. I can't wait to help the homeless and community in the great city of D.C. while bonding with new friends and learning and discovering a new side of myself.

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