While I was volunteering at Covenant House for Thanksgiving last year, I learned a lot of things. Covenant house is a foundationwhere they take donations and supply shelter and education for homeless teenagers. I have done translations for their videos in the past and this year, I volunteered in their Thanksgiving dinner. We served food for the dinner, and listened to the performances and speeches made by the teenagers who are a part of the Covenant House Program.

It was simply a volunteer program to me until it was near its end. However, one sentence that I heard as they were wrapping up the event had a great impact on me. The sentence was “I’ve spent several holidays without a family... But not anymore... YOU are my family... THIS right here is family. Thank you for being that to me”.

As the talker said this, she made me rememberwhen I was in the hostipial months ago when I was sick. It was my birthday, and I was unable to go home. Even when I had family around me, the sole fact that I couldn’t go home on my birthday made me upset. Even when I had family near me taking care of me 24 hours a day, I was unhappy that I didn’t get to be at “home”. As the speaker said her words, I realized that the people in Covenant House spent years without a family to embrace them, and a house to go to. This gave me motivation to try harder, and convinced me that I should give my true effort to help others, instead of just volunteering for volunteer hours. From this experience, I was greatly interested in tutoringhomeless and underprivileged children, and I went Covenant House to volunteer for two hours every Friday. I sort old health files so that they could be reordered or thrown away. As I sort them, I see that the majority of the beneficiaries have been suffering from some type of disease or mental disease. I realized that they lived in a very difficult sitatuation,much harsher than mine. I felt that there are much more to learn from volunteeringin the future. I look forward to seeing them again as a family member this Thanksgivingdinner!


<Jeong Min Si>