A Light at the End of the Tunnel

     When I was in seventh grade I applied to be a teacher assistant in a special education class. As a part of the application, we were required to write an essay explaining why we wanted the position. I remember deliberating my answer for weeks before I finally decided to stop thinking so much and write from my heart. As the pen hit the paper I found myself compelled to write about why I not only wanted to be a teacher assistant in the class, but also a special education teacher in general, the reason being that my heart yearns to help the underdogs- those who get overlooked. I am not sure why this has always stuck with me, but I explicitly remember ending the paper by stating that I wanted to be the light at the end of the tunnel.
     Now, what does all of that have to do this trip? WELL, let me tell you: Hurricane Katrina devastated the lives of thousands almost ten years ago. At this point, a lot of people across the country can't even fathom that there are still people without houses, scraping up money to try and save what they lost almost a decade ago- you want to talk about a population that has been overlooked, well here you go. Thus, this trip has particularly hit home, and I am eager to do all that I can to help in any and every way possible.
     In addition to helping with the physical labor, my (loftier) goal is to restore hope. When I was growing up there were eleven hungry mouths to feed and eleven bodies to keep safe. At a young age, although I didn't fully understand until much later, we encountered a series of rough financial patches. Food wasn't as plentiful, we slept in each others rooms not just for company, but for warmth, and splurging on expensive material possessions was not a thought in our heads- but of course little old me, being the optimist that I was/am, looked at it as one big and fun adventure. Unfortunately, as weeks turned into months, months transformed into years and these years dragged on, and drained some of my innocent, bubbly energy. I didn't give up hope, but that tank wasn't exactly full anymore. Even more unfortunately, things in my family got much worse before they got any better, and I lost more of that Mariah-pizaz everyone seems to enjoy so much. I guess since then, it has become my mission to help other people. My train of thought was that I couldn't help myself, but maybe, just maybe I could help other people. So while we (Bonners) were watching the video about Katrina, I remember a man talking about the aftermath of the storm and what it did to humanity; the violence, the looting, the lack of hope. I want to show these homeowners what hope looks like, what it feels like, what hope is. I want to give them what they want and what they need.
     I believe we all have our individual trials and tribulations that we have to go through, and sometimes it feels like we are aimlessly trying to fumble our way through a dark tunnel, but maybe, just maybe, all we need is a little light at the end of the tunnel.