Letter: Most important experiences can happen outside classroom
September 20, 2011
After three weeks of classes, I really start to wonder what I’m doing here. As a new school year begins, fresh pages are torn from notebooks, lecture notes are diligently scribbled and textbooks are read with earnest eyes, all with the intent of learning. We all come to college expecting to learn so we can get a better job, pursue our passion or discover something new. In class I’ve learned about accounting, computer science, mathematics and history. But I would like to share my greatest learning experience of them all. It took place in a trailer.
The trailer was dirty and cramped. Mold had eaten away holes in the floor. The flimsy wire door that held off the downpour outside was fastened to its frame by a shoelace. All the while, seven students and I stood there with hammers, nails and saws. This “house” in rural Kentucky sheltered a family of five. We spent a week helping turn a small trailer into a home the family could be proud of, even if that only meant building a deck and renovating two children’s bedroom.
In the end, what did I learn about?
I learned to appreciate the little things. We gave the 9-year old boy, Hunter, a $7 Mario poster. He literally nearly broke into tears of joy. I barely sneezed when I got an N64 at that age.
I learned about sacrifice. I saw unemployed parents give up badly needed car repairs and new clothes so their kids could get braces and eat healthy meals.
I learned about loss. I talked to the father, Terry, who lost his job in the coal mines and was forced to cramp all the belongings from their spacious house into a small trailer.
We packed up our bags, headed to Ames and I thought: What good is it for me to only learn to be an accountant? What good is it for me to only learn to be a software engineer?
While we’re in college, we can learn about appreciation, about sacrifice, about loss. We can learn about life. It is a mistake to go through life and not experience strangers stopping to thank you for helping provide firewood to keep their families warm, or a child in poverty wrapping his arms around you in thankfulness. I hope that everyone, for the sake of their education and other’s lives, has an experience like mine.
