Compassion
is a Virtue
by Kayla Suff-Greene
Compassion:
sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with
a desire to alleviate it. One of the struggles in our world
today is that people do not show enough compassion. They
put themselves first not caring how they may hurt others
or how it could affect how others see them. Giving to others
and helping others is one of the most important and free
qualities a person has and could give. I have found this
quality within myself and I am very thankful that I am able
to give and show it to others.
Growing up in foster care was not the greatest. I was always
being moved from one foster home to another. From the age
of seven, until I was adopted at the age of seventeen, I
was bounced around for foster home to foster home ending
at a total of ten foster homes. It felt to me that no one
wanted me and I felt like an old pair of shoes that when
you got tired of them you could just toss them out. It made
me feel like no one ever wanted me and that they did not
care for me. They just looked at me as a paycheck. No matter
how I was treated, as long as the social worker did not
find out, they were still going to get that monthly check.
But through all ups and downs, heartaches and heartbreaks,
I learned something very valuable and even though it was
not given to me, I felt that I was going to give it to others
no matter what. I learned compassion. Giving to others when
needed and not expecting anything back. I was known as the
giver. I would give to people even when I had nothing but
my heart and ears and sometimes that is all you need.
There are times in everybody’s life when you just
need someone to be there for
you. A lot of the time, that is at the point where I come
in. In the summer of 2007, I volunteered at the Cal Poly
Arabian Horse Center for the summer horse camps. My aunt
works at Cal Poly and was talking, one day when she came
home from work, about how the summer horse camp might be
canceled because they did not have enough counselors to
over see the campers. They usually would hire at least four
counselors to help out but were only were able to afford
two. So I told her that I would ‘volunteer’
at the horse camp over the summer to help out. I was not
wanting to get paid I just wanted to help out. She allowed
me to volunteer and because of that, both the campers and
myself benefited from it. I was able to learn so much more
about horses that I did not know before and plus the campers
were very grateful that their summer camp was not canceled.
I helped teach and assist the campers with grooming the
horses, riding and learning new tricks with the horses.
And I also was allowed to ride the horses with the campers,
which was very fun and exciting since I have not been on
a horse since the age of six. Each session was a weeklong
and there were a total of six weeks and at the end of every
session, I would always get a hand made thank you card signed
by all the campers thanking me for keeping the summer horse
camp alive.
Not only have I shown compassion in the past but also I
still show it today and will continue in my future. Currently,
I am babysitting for some old neighbors that used to live
down stairs from me. They are a young couple with a two
and a half year old son and a seven-month-old daughter.
They are the nicest and most generous people I have met.
The mother is a stay at home mom and the father works on
computers. They are not the richest and are sort of struggling
right now. They need my help babysitting but are not able
to pay me the six dollars an hour. So I go to their house
once a week and baby-sit for free. I see it as if I am not
struggling myself, why should I put them in the situation
of deciding of losing money or just not taking the help
and putting more work on themselves. It is only a few hours
out of my day that I can give to them because they need
it more than I do.
I am hoping that through out my lifetime, I can teach others
and give to others the concept of compassion. Hoping that
what they learn they can also pass on to others. However,
most people are to caught up in their own world to recognize
that the little help that they can give to just one person
can change both of the rest of their lives.
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