Experience at Alexandria's House

My overall experience at Alexandria’s House was not what I expected to be. When I was told that in Professor Sturgeon’s English 1A was required to do at least eight hours of service, I thought it would be fun and interesting. I volunteered at a hospital where I only did paper work, but doing my service activity at Alexandria’s House, I got to interact with people. I thought that I would gain something out of this service learning activity, but it didn’t make a difference when I worked there. When the class got to schedule on the days they planned on attending, I chose to volunteer on the 15^th, 22^nd, and 29^th of November. I wanted to complete my hours earlier, but there was too many people working on the ESL program. Throughout the months when it was close to November, I heard that few of the students showed up at Alexandria’s House. I was irritated because I could have been finished with my hours by then. I thought it wasn’t fair for the people who have to struggle on volunteering on the days that were left opened because they may have other important plans to do. Students weren’t showing up that the schedule didn’t matter anymore. For the students who need to finish their hours, they had to send the days that they were available. I emailed the same days I was scheduled before, but it was unavailable except the 29^th of November. I was frustrated because the people who didn’t show up at Alexandria’s House are volunteering last minute when they should have gone in the first place. I ended up scheduling myself on the 16^th and 23^rd of November. On the first day, I was nervous because I didn’t know where the house was and I didn’t know what to expect. When I arrived, no one showed up for the ESL tutoring. I waited most of the hours just incase if anyone showed up late, but Michelle let me go early because no one was going to come. I was disappointed because I wanted to contribute something to the people instead of getting the three hours for nothing. The second time I showed up, no one showed up again! I thought it was ridiculous that Michelle let me schedule on Sundays, but no one showed up when I came. I felt bad because I haven’t done anything at Alexandria’s House and it was close to the end of the fall semester. And the third visit, I thought no one was going to show up again because half an hour passed by and no one was there. Then finally, two Hispanic women showed up for the ESL program. I was planning to help them with the ESL tutoring, but the women only spoke Spanish. I felt useless because I didn’t how to speak in Spanish, so I couldn’t help them. I ended up taking care of the children instead. I thought that taking care of the children was going to be horrible but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The children were adorable and behaved well. All I did was watch over them to make sure they didn’t get hurt or misbehave. I enjoyed and finally got to help out at Alexandria. Overall, if the service learning activity’s schedule was more organized, I think I would of enjoyed helping more and wouldn’t have thought that the first two visits at Alexandria wasted my time.