What? So What? Now What?

     Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the community service event last Sunday because I had already made a prior commitment to run the Color Run in Flint. Although glancing through other posts makes it sound like an interesting experience, I definitely would recommend participating in the Color Run to anyone that is perhaps not the most intensive runner/ wants to be a human canvas.
    I guess I will respond to the prompt on a more general basis from my past community service. Throughout this past school year, I volunteered at the Green Baxter Court Community Center leading a book club for elementary aged kids. Although it sounds like it would be difficult forcing kids to read, I was actually surprised at how excited the kids were to simply have people that came to visit. Green Baxter Court is a low-income housing unit, and a lot of children there have unstable home lives. Because of this, the children that came to the book club were extremely excited to have people that consistently came to spend time with them.
     Needless to say, some weeks were more challenging than others. Sometimes the kids wouldn't want to put the book down (particularly the Flat Stanley series, if anyone's a fan!), and it felt very fulfilling to be able to get them so excited about reading. However, there were other days where I would have to spend more time disciplining the kids than actually reading. Those days, I would leave the center questioning whether I was actually making a difference and if this was a waste of my time.
     I have found that balancing this mix of emotions has often been applicable to my research. It is sometimes challenging to spend so many hours doing a particular task without seeing the big picture effect it will have. When I get into one of my existential why-does-this-matter moods, I often think back to my community service experience. Although I may not always be able to see the immediate effect of what I am doing become a reality, I know that I am contributing to something much greater.