Taya Hagarty
Sometimes even the smallest gestures can bring someone loads of happiness. In the summer of 2019 I travelled to Ecuador and the Amazon Rainforest on a volunteer trip. While on this trip I spent my time doing upgrades to the school communities, built a water tower, helped families gather their daily food and water, helped entertain the children while their parents completed the daily tasks, as well as many other heartwarming experiences. Upon arriving in the community that I would be working and seeing how incredibly happy these complete strangers were to see us as they knew we were there to help them made me feel truly humbled to be there to help and left me overwhelmed with happiness. While helping a local farmer harvest his daily crops it opened my eyes as to how a small task can make a huge difference in someone’s life and made me think about how I could bring these feelings back to my hometown in order to make a difference there. This experience along with many others on my trip taught me an incredible life lesson. Always help others, whether it’s something as simple as holding the door open for someone behind you, helping your neighbour with some yard work or something on much a bigger scale such as traveling to a less fortunate community and helping make their lives easier will always make a difference in someone’s life. No good deed ever goes unnoticed and will always brighten someone’s day, even if it’s just a little bit. So never be afraid to step out of your comfort zone to help someone cross the street, carry their groceries, or just smile and ask how their day was as you never know how much of an impact it can have on others.
Taya Hagraty
Emo Fair Queen Contestant
Word Count: 298
