Service

One of the unfortunate results of my decision to drop out of high school after my sophomore year (to attend college) was that I missed out on the National Honors Society activities. Since I had dropped out of my church even earlier, I really never did much community service. I've always prided myself on being involved in my educational communities: I was a greeter and pass-runner in junior high; I assisted my Spanish teacher in senior high; I was a resident assistant at Simon's Rock and involved myself in numerous aspects of campus life; I ran the Honors Student Organization film society for one semester at Madison. But other than working on Simon's Rock's adopted highway, I haven't done much of the kind of community service that most résumé-conscious students do.

Tonight, I made a first step to amend that. My family's church (and probably the only church with which I will ever feel any connection), Pilgrim's United Church of Christ, hosted a banquet for the school district's Special Education Parental Advisory Council. The over the course of the two-hour affair a number of community members were honored for their contribution to the lives of students with special needs. About ten members of the church served a dinner of homemade spaghetti with Olive Garden salad and breadsticks to the entire group of about seventy people. My family of four were actually the only servers (the rest cooked and washed dishes), and I think we did a pretty decent job. Our whole family wore black pants and white shirts, and I think it made up for our somewhat unprofessional technique. My mom had drilled us on proper serving technique in the car on the way over, but the tables were too cramped for us to actually follow etiquette. We were also hampered by the less-that-ideal planning, which meant that we had to wash and reuse utensils a number of times throughout the meal. Fortunately, the nature of the dinner/presentation gave us the time we needed. My feet are sore, but it was a rewarding experience.