Oh if only you knew...
This past weekend I attended the Texas Student Leadership Forum on Faith and Values in Austin. There about 70 students from twenty different universities in Texas came together for the weekend to discuss our thoughts and ideas on finding our purpose, building relationships, commending in acts of service, as well as participating in forgiveness and reconciliation.
During the weekend I was able to meet fellow students from across Texas who share the same passion and desire as I do to help make our community a greater place. My most rewarding experience from the weekend was during my small group's community service project. Saturday afternoon, we made our way to Dell's Children's Hospital where we were given time to interact with the children. During those few hours of play, I realized that those kids did not want our sympathy, they just wanted someone to play with. Whether it was us creating foam door knobs and picture frames or drawing beautiful master pieces, it was an awesome feeling to see their faces bright up. There was a little girl named Sarah who just made my day hands down. We were drawing together and she found a stencil of a dog and began tracing it. She started coloring this dog and she told her father and I that this dog looks like "Chance" their dog. Then we continued talking about the movie BOLT and I shared with her the fact that I wished I had a hamster so I could name him "Rhino" like the hamster in BOLT. She giggled and told me about her awesome guinea pig named "Squeaky". Apparently "Squeaky" looks like "Bugsy" from Bedtime Stories, except he has smaller eyes of course. =)
The whole time that Sarah and I were talking, I just saw how happy she was drawing, laughing, and playing with her sisters, who also came to visit her that day. It made me realize that no matter what cards in life that you are dealt with, you can always maintain a positive attitude because things happen for a reason. Everything happens exactly the way it's suppose to happen. Now, whether that's to your standards or not, it'll happen, good or bad. You see, Sarah was not dealt the best hand of cards but has made the best of her situation and I think that her and I were meant to have a goofy conversation that would brighten both of our days. Who knows, maybe even that short amount of time we spent together, changed both of our outlooks on everything. My advice to you is always to expect the unexpected. After all, you never know who you are going to meet and what you will be doing once you meet them. Initiating a simple conversation with someone may not be something you plan to do on a day to day basis but ultimately, when it comes down to it, it was suppose to happen for a reason. I'll leave you with these two little questions...
People always say, "everything happens for a reason", right?
Well wouldn't it be nice to know what that reason was?
I wish I knew exactly what to tell you,
Mai Lee
