Since childhood I was always encouraged to help others. My family and friends have taught to me to be aware of the problems that surround us. One of my earliest memories of social activism I have is when I joined my 5th grade classmates in order to clean the neighboring soccer field. My elementary school was not very big so we weren’t allowed to play soccer inside the school so we had to improvise by playing in the land lot next to our school. This lot was a desert solitude filled with trash, glass, reptiles, tires, and the biggest collection of dirty diapers I’ve ever seen. This lot was like an adventure island where you never knew what you’ll find. The school never even thought about cleaning the lot until parents began complaining about the lot. This gave rise to a conflict that lasted for days, or for a kid’s eyes, it lasted for decades. While the bureaucracy between adults took place, our class decided to do the dirty work instead.
We literally armed ourselves with brooms, machetes,…yes machetes, shovels and buckets. Every weekend we would go to the lot and clean a small portion of the lot. It took us half of the year to convert that desolate place into a “better” place to play. It was too clean but it was safer than playing in sandboxes filled with car oil and shattered glass. Soon after the school and our parents noticed what we had accomplished and decided to contribute to the work. It was a great experienced seeing that even thought we were very small, we were able to unite ourselves and the adults in order to accomplish something that seemed impossible. Now that I think about it, it seems like an episode of Recess! Anyways, this experience showed me the power of social activism that any groups of people can posses.
When it comes to the abilities I posses I would have to say I’m always a good listener. This has helped me to solve problems and create solutions for many obstacles. I also believe that every person possesses unique abilities that can always contribute to a team. So when these abilities unite, almost any problem can be solved.
3 comments:
Ricardo!
I love your story and yes it does sound like a recess episode!! But what you and your friends did was great! Good example! And yes you are a great listener on your team but I encourage you to give your imput because you have some very positive things to say! Great blog!
Your story is bacan. I think its very cool what you guys did =]
You guys were helping to make a better place than you had so even thought it was probably very hard, you all acomplished it.
I think thats really cool that you as a child were willing to take charge and make a change. It just goes to show that anyone at any age can make a difference. We definitely should not underestimate people, especially children.
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