Personal Narrative: Volunteering At The Soup Kitchen

I was standing in front of a store doorway. Dressed in a brown shirt, a gun weaved in both hands and a straight face. I was only with my thoughts, which had made me reminisce about the past. I was thinking of the war. The day I was leaving I said goodbye to my wife and my children.

Hook Buzzz! Buzzzz! The sound of my obnoxiously loud alarm clock. I than lean over my bed to reach for the end button. With only one eye open, I managed to look at the time.

While I was trying to think of what my parents would say to me I heard a knock on the main door. I looked where I was sitting and saw long strands of hair surrounding me. I hastily grabbed the mini trashcan in the restroom and started getting the evidence of my cut hair and thown into the trash. I heard the creeck of the door. I ran downstairs to greet them the first thing they saw was the baby hairs sticking up looking like I had been electrocuted.

It’s December 12th, the day after my 17th birthday. I am awoken to yelling and my heart is beating out of my chest and I can hear it ringing in my head. I look at my phone and the time reads 4 in the morning. I climb down my bed so fast that I almost trip on my way down and hug my mother who is sleeping beneath me in the spare bed. My mother lets go of me and I can still hear the arguing at this very moment.

Summer brought a conclusion to AP exams, AP and Honors classes, and Swim Team. Although I grateful for the much deserved break, I had an overwhelming urge to become an active member for my community. I knew I needed to obtain my mark in the world in a special way during the summer large-scale or not. However, I never thought I would volunteer at a food bank. As an acutely withdrawn and self-conscious person, I’d much rather prefer to assist out behind the scenes, as a dutiful background member.

On one never-to-be-forgotten night in October of 2014, my family had a plan to go to one of the scariest, terrifying, and craziest haunted places in America, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was nervous to go, but my parents convinced me to go. Before we left, my parents made me take the dog out, clean my room, and take the trash out, I was already in a bad mood before we even took off to go. While on the way there, I asked my parents, “Do you think an eleven year old boy should be going here?” “It’s too late for you to be pleading to go back now.”

My Grandpa used to tell me “No one has ever become poor by giving.” Friday, August 19th, 2009, I shall never forget what I learned at the “Trenton Soup Kitchen”. I never expected to be serving homeless people; after all, it was my birthday. My Grandpa picked me up in his 1956 red station waggon. I remembered the stories he used to tell me about how every summer he used to take his car to the annual “New Jersey Car Festival.”

Many ancient empires have risen and fallen throughout history. One of the most dominant empires was the Incan empire. The Inca empire spread across parts of present-day Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, and Ecuador. It is about 2,500 miles down the western coast of South America. The culture of the Inca was significantly affected by the regions that they lived in.

In the article, “Some of My Best Friends are Germs” Michael Pollan emphasizes the importance of microbes and how they affect our bodies and health. I thought a lot of this information to be interesting such as how microbes make up 99% of our bodies and how they contribute to the way we metabolize foods. I wasn’t aware of how microbes such as bacteria outnumber our body’s cells but yet fascinatingly interact with host cells to create optimal health. It was surprising to read that gut bacteria can alter the way we store fat or the way we respond to hormones that make us feel hungry or full which can ultimately lead to obesity because most often we hear that its due to an unhealthy lifestyle.

Drip, drip, drip, it started to sprinkle as I walked inside my house because, there was a leak. My Grandma announced, ”Here is a picture of your dad, please keep it with you.” I listened and I kept it with me. I got in the car because my grandma told me to.