Motivation I never thought I had
So today I volunteered at St. Joseph’s Hospital to get in another 5 National Honor Society hours. My mom made it seem like a punishment b/c the NYC trip was cancelled at the last minute (as always) and she made it seem like I was partly to blame. So she “made” me volunteer, although I was planning on volunteering in the first place anyway. Every time I volunteer I get stuck with paperwork so it’s nothing to look forward to. Even today all I did was stuff hundreds and hundreds of envelopes, but I got the chance to meet quite a few different people. This was the first time I actually enjoyed volunteering. Normally when I volunteer it’s after school for a few hours and it’s the same old ladies working there. Since I got to go in early today, I met a few different people who had some interesting stories to tell. I met a black man in his late 50s who really made a huge impact on me. Berkley is his name. He basically told me his life story b/c I wanted to know more about why he thought Islam was the “right” religion for him. I’m still not sure how a person knows that a religion is “right” for him or her, because I’m still not sure what is right for me. Maybe it is Islam, but I think I need to do some more research to know for sure. Anyway, he told me about how he grew up as a Christian with family members who were Ministers, but he always questioned Christianity. He looked into many different religions including Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism, etc, and he read many holy books. He told me that when he was handed a Quran and he read the first surah, his heart opened up immediately. He immediately found that Islam was the right religion for him, and soon after he converted in his late 30s, his kids and wife converted too. He told me that all of his questions were answered in the teachings of Islam and how he’s changed so much as a person since he converted. He told me about how he started learning Arabic from a 14-year old and was able to read, write, understand, and speak Arabic within a year and a half. His story immediately gave me the motivation to want to learn Arabic, too. I know this sounds really stupid, but his story really did impact me and just from talking to him for a little while, he made me want to not only be a better person but to gain as much knowledge as I can. I all of a sudden have the motivation to learn to understand and speak more languages and learn more about not only my religion but of other religions as well. I never thought that one person, a stranger for that matter, could teach someone so much in such a short period of time. Berkley is one person I’ll never forget.