Helping Hands

Senior year, finally we are almost done and we are all ready to get out of here but there’s just one thing left standing in the way, Senior Project.  Senior Project is a very large and daunting project that is required for all seniors to do to graduate. So we are all scattering around trying to get project ideas that will impress our panel of teacher.  Some panels are harder than others but I lucked out with all teachers that I have good relationships with. I guess you could say that my passion is softball so that’s what I did my senior project on. I decided it would be a good idea to help out our local rec. softball program and host some clinics for younger girls to raise money for the softball program.  I thought this would be a good idea where as I was once one of those girls myself and seeing the rec. field a mess and all the equipment beat up and gross I saw it as an opportunity to do my part help out. As I got started with this project I had to make many difficult decisions and it was hard finding fellow softball players or adults to help me run my clinics.   As I’m scrambling to find helpers for my project I see all me fellow classmates finishing or already done with their projects waiting to present. One week before my first clinic I try and message everyone again about helping me out and I ended up with a total of seven helper which was more than plenty because I didn’t end up having a very high attendance rate. It was also very hard to find a teacher or one of the school staff to come early on Sunday morning to open the school for me and to stay the entire time.  Luckily I ended up finding one teacher who was very willing and excited to help me out with my capstone project. Where the clinic was going on at one point I stopped just to look around and I was so thankful to have such an amazing softball family who was willing to take time out of their early Sunday mornings to help me with my senior project. The work that I needed them to do was helping teach younger kids how to field a ball, running situations, proper hitting mechanics and much more stuff. Most of the helpers I ended up getting play on my Revere travel softball team so I know them really well along with their strength and weaknesses so when it came to who was going to teach what, that was pretty easy.  Again I could never thank them enough for all of the hard work that they put into helping me complete my senior project.

A time when I helped a friend was.. Well we were not even friends yet, matter of fact we didn’t even know each other.  To her I was just some girl from the United States and to me she was just an exchange student from Italy looking for a host family in the United States to take her in for the next school year.  Me and my family decided to sign up and take her in to our home for the up and coming school year. When she got here we we became best friends within seconds. Coming to our school I was the only friend that she had so I was her go to if she had any questions or needed help whether it be with language or directions.  When she got here she was nervous and scared even if it did not seem like it because of her loud and outgoing personality. She was a very outgoing person. The thing that I helped her the most with was translation, I basically became her personal translator for a year, if someone could not understand here that’s where I jumped in to help her out.  Once she stated to navigate her way around our town and around Oak Hill High School she started to make new friends but also our bond became stronger.

As our bond became stronger she became more like a sister to me.  Her becoming a sister to me definitely helped me a lot in the sense that I’ve never had any siblings before and she gave me that experience.  We had our ups and downs but in the long run I think that having her come stay with me and my family was the best experience I could ever ask for.  She also inspired me, she helped me realize that anything is possible. By saying anything is possible I mean I could go anywhere I want, I could learn multiple languages, I could make friends from different countries, learn about their culture.  If you actually think about that it’s pretty awesome. I’ve always been fascinated with different cultures and taking her into our home taught us a lot about Italy. She also introduced me to other exchange students from Italy also other countries too and we are all friends now.  

We both helped each other.  We helped each other in the sense of friendship and sisterhood.  She helped me understand what it was like to have a sister or even a sibling at all and I helped her navigate her way around the United States.  Without her coming her to the United States I would never have been able to experience the things that I did, I got to see what it was like to have to support someone who was really counting on me and I got to see lots of new things even places in Maine that I’ve never been to.  I am so grateful to have the people in my life that I do, I have an amazing softball family and also an amazing sister across the world, I don’t know where i’d be without my friends and family to help me along the way.

Photo by practicalowl on Foter.com / CC BY-NC