Lawrence+Tan+on+Outbound+Trip

When I first heard about a possible outbound trip for my ISOCREC course, I must say I initially thought I knew what to expect. See, during my first year here at DLSU, I took my NSTP community service course and I had I good time doing it, I must say it felt really satisfying helping the more unfortunate ones. But I couldn't have been more wrong, I mean, obviously I still had a good time doing the ISOCREC outbound trip, but I honestly felt it was a lot more satisfying in many ways.
 * On the outbound trip in general**

I do believe that sometimes, how we do community service becomes more of a cliche, helping others out will always be a good thing, but I don't think simply helping by immediately giving material things to others does not enable us to empathize with them, the process defined by us understanding what others go through. During the ISOCREC trip, the one thing that surprised me was that I was really given the opportunity to relate with children and with all honestly, it was the first time I realized that these kids being a little bit more unfortunate than me, at heart, they are just like me. I didn't see myself simply helping them because of their situation, in them I simply saw myself as a child. Given some circumstances being a little bit different, I really thought they were kids who I wanted to become friends with. Energetic, playful, joyful, I guess what I liked about the trip is that despite the seemingly large barrier between us DLSU students and these kids, in the end it just lets you realize that this barrier is often just an illusion of society. I mean, who said you can't be friends with our more unfortunate brothers and sisters? Yet we can see it doesn't happen often.
 * Relating with the students Bagac**

Our activity involved teaching the kids origami specifically how to create a frog out of art paper. Honestly, I just learned to make one that day itself when my group mates taught me which I thought helped me teach the kids better. One thing that surprised me was how enthusiastic this children were even if they were a little bit noisy (I guess it comes with being enthusiastic). It just goes to show that life is all about perspectives, some have fun living life, some view it as a struggle.
 * On our activity**

I really look forward to the next time I can or will be given the opportunity to help out in my community again. From this trip, one thing I realized is that we should always empathize with others, we must feel and understand what they go through to make what we do really mean something. I think it also goes the same with life, the perfect life, I've realized, is simply one which means something.
 * In conclusion**