once all of humanity becomes my family

below is the essay i submitted to AmeriCorps with my application. I had to answer what my motivation was for wanting to work with them. Tell me what you think!!



It was not until my second year of college did I know that my life would be committed to helping others. Like clay, there are many facets that shaped me into the person I am today. One of which is my sensitivity to those around me. I have always been known as a sensitive person so leaving my Human Rights class in tears was not anything new. Many would see this sensitivity to emotion as a burden but I truly believe it is my greatest gift. It is the ability to empathies that deepened my need to use the resources I have been given to help those around me. By resources I do not mean I am greatly wealthy, far from it actually. I was raised by a single mother with five siblings; I know what it means to struggle. I knew that I had far more than most, even with what seemed like so little. With the love and support of that large family I pursued my passions and even earned a degree along the way. Their help was necessary and without them I know I would not be shinning as brightly as I do today. Now with hands full of knowledge and ambition how could I thank all the people who made this position possible? Not just my family who does it out of love, but what about the women at churches who gave my mother food for us to eat, or teachers who filled me with the passions that ignited them, or even the friends who simply believed in me what would be enough to thank them. The only thing that could come close to reciprocity would be to do my best to stop a child from going hungry, to share my passions with another or to believe in someone who truly needs it and even then the scale is forever tipped. At the ripe age of twenty two I face a world that is drowning in its own mess. I am not blind to the atrocities that exist in the world and within our own country. I know that these issues are bigger than me, that they span centuries and reach corners of the world I will never touch. This is why I cannot see a more necessary role than that of philanthropy. It is with the sensitivity that in every little girls face I see my own, in the tired eyes of a struggling mother I see the wrinkles of mine. Once all of humanity becomes my family what other option do I really have then to try with all my power to make their lives more beautiful. For how I see it they already have for me so it’s the least I can do.