Without hesitating, I have dedicated myself to PAVA. PAVA, also known as Pacific American Volunteer Association, is an organization that hosts a variety of volunteer activities, whether it be from participating in the Hollywood Christmas parade to contributing to the betterment of neighboring communities. PAVA is unique and it provides strong-willed students with the opportunities to think out of the ordinary and experience what their peers are limited to experiencing.

I remembered hearing PAVA from someone, my sister. I went on the website and saw the pictures of the events that the PAVA members had attended. The passionate, dedicated, serious looks on their faces left an impression on me. I was determined to join. PAVA felt and still feels like a family with the members being friendly and caring. Although they might say that they aren’t passionate and caring, I see it deep inside them. I still volunteer.

It’s a lie if I say that I don’t volunteer for the hours. It’s a lie if I say that all events are fun. However, it isn’t a lie when I say that after each meaningful events, you realize the morals. Due to PAVA’s partnership with Midnight Mission, alternating districts have their own set of responsibilities to part-take in the midnight missions. When I had first joined PAVA, I didn’t know what Midnight Mission was. I was thinking to myself, was it literally doing missions at midnight? Ambiguous thoughts constantly wandered through my head. Then, coincidently, it was our district’s turn. We, including our district’s members and the people who managed the Midnight Mission, met around at 5:30 a.m. and got straight to work. While others were assigned to the work inside the kitchen, I was assigned to assist in the table work. I walked besides the tables because an authoritative figure had told me to do so. As I continued to walk, working to my satisfaction, the same guy told me to now pick up the trays that the homeless individuals had finished. Why is he trying to make life more difficult? Why can’t he do it himself? Immediately, I took those questions back when I saw what all of the respected homeless individuals were doing. As I tried to take the “finished” trays, majority of the people halted me from taking the trays. I was confused so, I observed. Once having done so, they saved the leftover food in their bags and said OK. I fell at this. My accumulated anger, impatience, and desperateness had dropped. Don’t take things for granted and be grateful for what you have.

Solely one person cleaning up the streets of Los Angeles, the beach, etc. is going to take ages in order to make incredibly large changes in the environment. With hundreds of people carrying on the same obligations and objectives as the one person’s obligations and objectives, we will inevitably see change. And as that number doubles, triples, quadruples, there will be further betterments.


<Seong Weon Cho, South High School 12th Grade>