Personal Narrative Analysis

After two straight days on a bus and ten weeks of training, I was still anxious to experience something that almost no one else would get to do in their lives. This was the first year I would be able to volunteer at a Native American reservation in Stockbridge, Wisconsin. This was a once in a lifetime chance to see what life was like inside a reservation, where not many outsiders were allowed into. As I first arrived, I could feel a significant difference between what their community was like, and what my own community back home was like. A certain disconnect was felt, and I couldn’t help but feel like a fish out of water. Inside the four walls of the brand new community center, I almost learned more in those few days than I’ve learned in most of my life.

The first day, the activity that I was deemed responsible for was a nail painting station.

I was told that the real reason that we had this station was so that we could talk to the Natives and get to build a sense of trust, in order to create relationships. I still remember having countless people coming to get their nails done, ages spanning from 3 years old all the way to 80 years old, each one having a story to tell or expressing their gratitude of having all of our volunteers come from states miles away. The one woman in particular from almost 3 years ago whose story I could never forget. She told me about her many life experiences, from having three abusive husbands die to drunk driving accidents and her own personal drug and alcohol addiction. I couldn’t help but feel for her, and respect how strong of a person she became because of this. Thankfully, her story ended with rehabilitation and living happily with her tens of grandchildren, but many others are not as lucky as she was. I quickly learned that things like domestic abuse and alcoholism were some of the most common issues in this community and many others like it, and have been for a number of

years.
The rest of my days went by extremely fast, filled with getting to do activities with the Native American friends I made there, and rapidly learning how to become more selfless, and discovering that almost nothing I did there should be for my own personal benefit, Which was something I now apply to my daily life. By the end of that simultaneously long but short week, I came out of it feeling a sense of family and made so many new relationships that would still last to this day. Before this experience, I had thought this would have just been a volunteer work trip to help others in need, but, through everyone I spoke to and interacted with, it ended up being one of the most thought provoking and humbling experiences of my entire life.