My instructor and his wife brought me into the world of community service. Growing up in a small Southern town, I always thought that homeless and starving people were worlds away - and not my problem. Boy, was I wrong.

Through my instructor, I became involved with a program designed to feed migrant workers in the neighboring tobacco fields. Three nights a week, I put aside my comfortable middle-class life and became a servant.

I thought I would just go there, serve some food, and leave, but I was proven wrong. Since most of the workers spoke Spanish, language was a problem. But we quickly learned to communicate in other ways until I picked up Spanish. Those three nights a week, I not only served and ate, but became their friend.

Through this experience, I learned that big problems raise their ugly heads in all parts of the country. The most valuable lesson, though, is that these aren't just statistics and news stories, but real people with real lives. fl