Many things have inspired my life, but I feel extremely lucky that I came from a family of immigrants. My Mom, Dad, and their families immigrated from Cuba fleeing Castro's harsh regime and looking for a better way of life. My Mother arrived in Chicago in the late 60's, the Civil Rights Act had recently been passed, and discrimination and restlessness was still about. She not only faced the tough language barrier, but tells me stories of how she dealt with bigotry and bullying in school. On the other hand, my Father immigrated in 1980 via the Mariel Boatlift. It was a treacherous, 14 hour boat trip whom he and his family shared with recently released criminals and the mentally ill. Both my parents encountered hardships on their journey …show more content…
for a few years. During that time, she instilled in me the idea of volunteering, helping the school, helping others, without reward or recognition. I recall that she encouraged me to participate in after school events sponsored by the PTA, and I was always volunteering, right up-front for the after school sales, dances, family events, and even worked the PTA school store before school. It was fun, rewarding and fulfilling. In Middle School, I also spent some time volunteering for the PTA, helping with sales and school activities among other things. During the past few summers, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the local zoo, which was interesting and enlightening. Unfortunately, it seems that I never have enough time. Being involved in so many school activities, clubs, bowling and homework, time is a very precious commodity. I do volunteer at Terra from time to time, helping friends with their service projects, and even work a sale or two. But I certainly miss those dances and pizza sales, and even the school store. It was never work, certainly not about recognition, but mostly about helping others give of themselves. In the long run, volunteering has helped me not only to give of myself, but develop the leadership skills to help others do the