Personal Narrative

Deven Crowell

1/25/06

1st block Ms. Todd

Personal Narrative

The wonderful gift of giving is more precious than any material item that is just used for simple amusement. There is no greater feeling than the one you get from knowing you personally affected someone. In the situation that I'm going speak about, I got a chance to see how one's joyous gratitude can emotionally touch another. Experiences like these are the ones that gave me an extra sense of maturity and also helped me grow to be a better person overall.

It all began on the first bus route of my summer job. The first stop was at the corner of Halifax and Liberty Street. Two girls boarded the bus, and carried themselves as if they were normal children living a normal life. As the two girls prepared to take their seats, I asked them for their names, and that was the moment in which I knew they were two very special kids. I never had to ask them for their names again.

All of the bus riders and I arrived to the program site at approximately 9:15am. It was the beginning to a very chaotic day that would be a preview for things to come. In the middle of the chaos there were the two little girls from the first bus stop asking the staff and me if we needed help with anything. That day we said no, but in later days we finally decided to give the two sisters some responsibility. We eventually made them the leaders of their respective age groups. That it when I first saw how grateful they were for such small things.

I always wondered how these girls behaved so well, them being from such a rough part of town, until I found out where they were coming from. About the second week of camp the bus driver and I took a new route to pick up the kids. We rode down Halifax Street and then stopped at the homeless shelter. I said "Mrs. Carol," which was the bus driver's name, " why are we stopping right here?" and before she got to say anything I saw the two girls run out of the building. That was one of the most shocking moments of my life, but I didn't let the girls see my emotion, I just greeted them as I would any bus rider. Although I hid my shock from the girls, in the back of my mind I couldn't help but think of something to do for them since they were so well behaved and underprivileged at the same time.

Around the middle of the summer I got with my supervisor, who is also a very close friend and talked about the situation with the girls. We never noticed it until that moment, but the girl had not been one trip the whole summer. My supervisor and I came up with a plan. We decided we were going to send the girls on two weeks worth of small local trips and the last big trip to Water Country USA. We didn't tell them we were paying for the trips, we just let them know they were being rewarded for their good behavior.

The week before the Water Country trip approached, and it was then we told them they were going. They were ecstatic. It