We ask all student volunteers to write a short reflection about their service at My Brother's Keeper. There is no required page limit. We are most interested in hearing a story about a delivery you participated in and how the experience impacted you. You can drop it off at My Brother's Keeper at the end of your service or submit it electronically here.

“A Privileged Life”
By Colleen Sessler, Oliver Ames High School, Easton

I live in a suburban upper middle class town with my mom and dad, still happily married. I live comfortably with the luxuries of a happy home, a car to drive, and a place to sleep. I live a safe and sheltered life, and until my time at My Brother’s Keeper, I believed that everyone around me did as well.

I halfheartedly showed up for my first volunteer day with my designer flip-flops and over-priced purse. I prepared myself for the job that lay ahead of me: delivering donated furniture to those who could not afford to buy their own. I thought that I would be travelling into the inner city, far from the comfortable town I call home. I thought wrong.

Just ten minutes up the road, we made our first stop. I walked up the front steps with the three other volunteers and thought to myself, “This place isn’t that bad.” Then the door opened. Boy, was I wrong. I looked down to see five little children, all under the age of eight.

Their faces said it all. Their excitement nearly exploded as they led us up the narrow, broken staircase. I expected a small apartment with shabby furniture at the top of the stairs, but once again, I was wrong. Except for the dust pile and broom in the corner, the three-room apartment was empty.

The single mother led me into the room where she wanted the beds to be set up. I peered around the corner to see a little boy, no older than two, sound asleep in a tiny sleeping bag.

I walked back to the truck, ready to start bringing in the beds. I reached up to pull out a mattress when I saw a tiny hand beside mine. I turned around to see all of the little kids, beaming grins upon their faces, eager to help move in their new beds. And that’s when it hit me.

To me, I was delivering a bed; something I use everyday without ever thinking twice. But to these children, I was delivering a comfortable place to sleep. I was bringing them something to get them up off the floor, something to bring them Hope, something to give their family a boost in the right direction.

Thanks to my time at My Brother’s Keeper, I am no longer absorbed in my own happy life, naïve to the world around me. My eyes are wide open, aware that not everyone lives a privileged life.

I now realize I live a privileged life. Not because I am comfortable, but because now, at seventeen, I know the feeling of helping someone off the floor, and back onto their feet.