Pre Journal
Volunteering is not a new concept for me because I worked voluntarily once when I was in the US. It was three years ago. My experience was very similar to this one. I worked in a garden which grows vegetables and gives these vegetables to the poor people. I planted fruits and vegetables on the field. At night time I and my friends cooked for the poor people and this experience was amazing. You cannot express your feelings with any words when you put a smile to someone else’s face. This moment is priceless. I think SAGE garden trip would be very similar to my last experience. I am looking forward helping, cook and meet new people. We can learn lots of things from these people. We can learn about the other side of the life and the most important thing is we can learn to help each other. Anybody could make a difference in this world. I am sure that as a group we will gain lots of benefits from this activity and as an individual, I am going to help others as much as I can.
After Journal
This was my second time as doing a volunteering activity and also this one is more meaningful for me than the other one. Working on the field, carrying leafs with a wheelbarrow, picking the crops … These activities were very difficult. However, they were also very funny. We did everything with teamwork. I think being a team player is an amazing is an amazing specialty. I tried to help everybody because I felt that I was doing something right. I knew that my efforts would help people who extremely needs food. For this reason, I gave my best. After we finished our job, I drunk a huge amount of water and this feeling was priceless. For the first time in my life, I had deserved water. One of the volunteers congratulated us and said that we did a good job. I want to express something that impressed me deeply. A couple was working on the field and they were more than 80 years old. My dream is to become like them because in this concept there would always be people who need help. If I would be capable at that age why I won’t help them? In my opinion, volunteering must be the most important value of societies’ life otherwise, our community would be selfish. I am going to express my feelings and experiences to everybody. Even if I could encourage one person about doing volunteering, I would feel very happy.
Murat Zeybeker
06/04/2016
