826 Service Reflection

It was my first volunteering service to work for months with high school kids whom I feel the most relatable too since I was in the same position a year ago. Honestly, I thought that this was not going to turn out great. I thought that I would always be nervous with the new students and afraid to teach anything because I know that I do not have enough knowledge to teach. I remember the first time I went to the writing room with my classmates, and I said that I would want to gain the confidence to teach something to people. Well, the first day of volunteering was awkward as expected. I visited a lot of students in different classes that reminded me of myself back in high school. For 30 minutes, I had a chat with the students about questions that they were interested in college life. Well, that was simple to answer. Gaining slight confidence, I came back to meet new students, but I struggled a lot more than the last service day. One refused to let me sit beside him since he’s not too comfortable with new people. Others were in their world chatting about things besides their essays. I struggled really hard thinking when and where to fit and actually start talking; I expressed this in my previous post blogs. Fortunately, things got a little day by day. I realized that nobody is going to scream for help unless I step up to the students first and open a discussion about their life besides studying first. Then, when I ask about what they were doing, they start answering my questions actively and focus back on their essays or research papers. The anxiety of my lack of knowledge in writing disappeared as students kindly explained to me what was going on and asking specific areas they want to write about but can’t express. My previous blog posts were mostly positive: students were active, faculties gave structured schedules, and everything was fine. However, now going back to the comments, I think I was a bit flattering. There were several difficulties with communication that I wish to fix. I hope in the future, the staffs and faculties establish a simple activity so that the students and volunteers can create friendship and move forward easily with the writings. My advice for future volunteers in 826 Boston or any place is to recommend the activity and be always confident with yourself. Then, the students might also share their stories and opinions of their point of view in writing.