Makin' a Difference

You know that feeling that you get when you feel like you're stuck in a situation, and no matter what you do you cannot find a way out of that situation? Your life seems to be on repeat, nothing new and everyday is the same ol' same ol'? You wake up, go to school, go home, do homework, eat dinner, go to practice/work/church (depending on the day), come home, eat a 2nd dinner, take a shower, do more homework, go to bed by eleven if you're lucky, then at 6AM the alarm is going off so that you can spend another day doing the same old thing? Wash, Rinse, Repeat?

Yeah, well that had been what I had been thinkin' for a while. Every once in a while the opportunity to teach a swim lesson or help out with the Intermediate and Advanced groups at practice had become the highlight of my day. Everyday felt like a drag.

Then Relay for Life happened. Registering high schoolers, figuring out fundraisers, rounding up nerf guns, planning snacks and drinks, selling bandannas.. there was always something to do. Something that didn't involve school or swimming. Then on Tuesday 5 of us who were all in swimming and polo and helpin out with Relay emptied out my locker which was full of empty water bottles that I never felt like throwing away and made collection bottles for people to donate coins to Relay.

I feel like I'm making a difference and it makes me so happy. A lot of the football coaches are helping out, and seeing random people come and giving me their coins really means a lot.

Story: Yesterday one of the kids I sit with in art (not autistic, but similar) wanted so badly to donate money to RFL, but he didn't have any coins, so I dug around in my purse, fetched out a few random pennies that were hiding, and gave them to him so he could donate. The smile on his face was precious. Today he walked up and wanted to donate again, but all he had on him was a $20 bill. Well I wasn't going to let him donate that because I knew it was probably supposed to be used for something, but he wanted so bad. So he gave me his $20, and I gave him a $10 bill, a $5, and five $1 bills. Then he was able to donate $2 to RFL. Once again seeing him fold the bill up so that it could fit in my collection jar (which at this point had been upgraded to a milk jug) and the smile on his face was precious. Not only did he donate to RFL which made me happy, seeing him light up like that was one of the coolest things I've seen in forever.

I feel like now, each day is not another drag. Each day I wake up with the goal in mind to tell more people about Relay, to sell more bandannas, to fix some of the kinks in our fundraisers, and more than that, tell more people why I Relay!

On that note, if you happen to be roaming Cy-Falls High School or Cornerstone UMC's Bible Studies... donate money to Relay for Life so we can continue to make a difference for RFL, because we are in a big way. But more than that, we are making a difference in our own lives by helping out others. And it feels awesome.