Doing service for class was once again a great, enjoyable experience. These services never seem to disappoint me. They are entertaining and I always seem to find at least one crazy creature.
Instead of spending my morning at school on a Saturday for the pig roast, Celeste, Lucy, and I decided to do our service down at Belle Isle picking up trash. It was not the most beautiful day but it sure turned into a wonderful experience and was incredibly rewarding! Not only was I helping the environment, I was feeling good about myself. People were walking, jogging, or biking past me smiling and saying thank you to me. It was a great feeling and really turned a so-so day into an amazing day.
It frustrated me picking up trash that people were just too lazy to throw away in a trash can. The worst thing was that more than half the trash I picked up was plastic and recyclable.
It made me think, we are only three people picking up trash right now for not even that long of a period of time, and we were accomplishing a lot. I cannot even imagine how much would get done if a huge group of people were to get together and spend the whole day picking up trash. I don’t think people realize that doing such a simple task can both so rewarding and so helpful!
Also, it’s not just a good service you are performing, it can be extremely fun. During my last service my group found some very interesting bugs. This service we once again ran into an extremely interesting bug. We ended up making a video of the three of us and “it”. We had no idea what it was and the video was truly us being us (if you saw the video you see how weird we are). Its times like these that I will reflect back on this experience and remember how much fun I had. I was not only helping the environment, but making myself feel good and having one of those great friend experiences.
These blogs are supposed to be about us and nature but I find this particular one to be more about friendship and how something so small can go so far. Yes I am out in nature and loving every second of it, but just knowing I am making a difference is all I can think about.
I am sure I could get the same rewarding feeling picking up trash by myself but sharing the experience with friends made it all just that much better. Being able to look back on an experience and laugh about it just makes it a little more special. I have a feeling I will be doing some spontaneous trips to a park to pick up trash for a long time.