Throughout my four years of highschool, I have experienced many great moments and community services.  Services that gave me a new outlook on life and enlightened me up to a whole brand new world. A world full of new people, different communities and a unique lifestyle. Those services also changed me into a new person, one who appreciates everything and never takes stuff for granted. It also inspired me to give back to the community, whether it’s my neighborhood or where my parents grew up in. One of my all time favorite community services I did was the time my family and I helped handout food and other items to the less fortunate people in the Philippines.

In 2018, my family and I took a trip to Manila, Philippines. We were going there to visit my family and see the town my parents came from. When we got there, I noticed that there were many people on the streets and a lot of the areas were in poverty. There were people begging for money, selling as many items as they could, and sleeping on the streets. It was a different kind of lifestyle, one that they had to do in order to make a living. To help out their community, my family set up an event where they gave back and donated items such as food, clothes, and money.

That event was one of the best moments I have ever gotten to experience in my life. It changed me by giving me a new perspective on life and cherishing quality time with my family. To the filipino people, it didn’t matter how wealthy or what living situation they were in, they were always happy and appreciated life no matter what. That showed me that the smallest acts of kindness and giving back to the less fortunate can make for a better world. It made me reflect on life and realize how lucky I am to have a roof on my head and food on the table. When I saw how happy those people were eating, seeing how big their smiles were and how surprised their faces got when they opened up their gifts, it made me feel a new type of feeling. A feeling of true happiness and joy. This experience truy taught me alot and made me proud of my family and where I came from.

To me, this event changed my community because it became more positive and people realized that they should help one another instead of judging those who live on the streets and are trying to make a living. It also inspired some of the more wealthy people in the twon to do the same, to give back and look out for one another. Every year there is now an event where everyone from any area can come together to donate all sorts of stuff to those in need. My aunt goes back to the event and continues her tradition of giving back to the community. Unfortunately my family isn’t able to go back to the Philippines every year to help, but we still pay our dues by donating money to the event.

This shaped my future by making me want to continue to help people all over the world. Not only in my community, but around the world. People in different places, everywhere there's always someone that needs help and I want to be the person that can help them. Whether it’s donating to an organization, volunteering at a shelter, or feeding the homeless. It is very important to me to fulfill my needs by giving back to the community and participating in future events, regardless of being a senior in high school and maintaining my GPA of a 3.0.