“When It’s Time to Say Goodbye”

I’ve been volunteering at AMSET (the Art Museum of Southeast Texas) for about two months now. The work is difficult, but it’s necessary, in the fact that without mine or any of the volunteer’s work, the whole Art After School program would collapse. I may not be the most important piece, but I’m still a necessary component in keeping this program as a great extracurricular for the elementary school students from all walks of life.

Knowing that my work is so necessary to this program, I’ve come to respect even the little jobs that I need to do. Even when I’m just sitting with the kids and watching them, making sure that they’re focused on their work, I know that the art museum and my friends trust me to keep my end of the task up. Although watching 4^th graders isn’t that difficult, I’ve learned to keep the same sense of responsibility in every task I do. It helps that I treat a simple task such as watching the children with the same gravity as prepping sugar skulls, checking for cracks in the molds, or overseeing the mixing of icing to decorate the skulls.

Carrying this mindset out into the rest of my life has produced some very good results. I’m required to study for eight hours a week, but I always used to treat those hours as a waste of time, and didn’t really do any work when I was “studying.” By buckling down and doing the work that needs to be done, I’ve actually improved my grades in several classes and given myself more free time than normal, as I’m not scrambling to finish homework that’s due the next morning.

Due to having specific class times, my volunteer hours, and the study hours, I’ve learned how to manage my time wisely through the same application. I don’t waste much time anymore, and I’m consistent in how I manage my homework and classes.

Working at the art museum has also provided me with a greater sense of community, and a stronger friend-group. Working side-by-side with five other TALH students (The Texas Academy of Leadership in the Humanities), I’ve definitely formed a closer bond with them, and I’m happy to consider them as friends. Getting covered in paint with others is one of the few true bonding agents between people, like glue for souls.

Still, it’s very humbling to be thrust into a room of elementary school children, with no real filters. It’s like the movie, “The Invention of Lying”; everything they think, they say, and it’s not all compliments. I can’t blame them, though; they just haven’t grown the social barriers that life experience slowly ingrains in us and our thoughts. It’s almost like a look back into the past, seeing the thoughts that I had at that age and realizing that I was really rude. It made me look at how I act today, and I resolved to try and be a bit nicer to people. No need for me to act like a 12-year-old; there are enough of those around as it is.