Service is one of the main ideals of the Cormier Honors College. Honors students love to help in the community in any way they can. I have participated in many different service opportunities already in my first year at Longwood. One of my favorite opportunities so far has been at the Honors Service Retreat at Hull Springs Farm that I did. I have also helped out in other ways at booths for the Honors Student Association and Phi Sigma Pi for Relay for Life, Oktoberfest, and Spring Weekend. I love to help others, so I know I will continue to do these things when I can. I will always be looking for other ways to help people out and be involved in the community.
Now I want to say a little bit about my first Honors Service Retreat. It was so much fun when went during the last weekend of March. It was the only one we could do this academic year. The fall one was cancelled because it was around the time when those tornadoes hit in October, so good reason to not have them. That made the March one even more exciting for me! When that Friday rolled around, I was happy to go because that meant time spent bonding with other people in Honors while helping other people out in the Westmoreland County area which is where Hull Springs Farm is. I knew that I would have a few things I needed to do on that Sunday when we got back, but it was nothing too bad. Anyways, it came time for us to go in the afternoon, so we did. We stopped for dinner in Midlothian, and then we kept going until we got there. When we got there, we all looked around and claimed rooms before going back downstairs for a little bit of fun. This fun was talking with each other and playing games. We then talked about the next day and went to sleep after we were told what groups we were in and when we needed to get up.
On Saturday, we got up when we had to and divided up into our three groups. The group I was in went to a women’s shelter in the area and helped clean there. We even were provided lunch by the people who worked there, which was awesome. I was glad that we didn’t have to buy lunch anywhere and I was happy that we could talk to the other employees and volunteers that were there. Some of the things we did while there were organize rooms and clean the windows of the buildings. The employees were grateful for all our help and hard work. It helped them a lot. I definitely got closer to the people in my group while working, and it helped that we were all open to dividing up the jobs so they could all get done. When our work was done, we went back to the farm and relaxed a little bit on the water before we all went out for dinner together at a restaurant. This dinner was an opportunity to talk with my new friends and relax after a day of hard work. We then went back and played the Character game for a little bit before going to sleep.
The drive back was pretty peaceful because we were all still a little bit tired from the day before. Sometimes, we would talk a little bit more with each other though too. This trip brought me closer to others in Honors, especially the ones who I don’t see often. We had lots of fun together too! This trip showed me what service is to the Honors College, and it also showed me the meaning of service in all places. I’m happy that I had the opportunity to go on this trip and I plan to go on many more!