HOPE

[00:00:01] So at this point it's been a little bit since this actually happened, but just thought I'd do an episode on what we call HOPE at or the boarding school I go to, so. Oh my. I actually should know what HOPE stands for. I forget. [00:00:19] There's something about outreach though and like the idea is giving people hope, though it's not very complicated process. We just go around and go do. [00:00:29] Go help people in our local communities, help around the school and we just take a school day to do this and don't have to do any school work in the actual day and we just get to go out into the community and help people and it's really cool. [00:00:43] So usually for it I don't do all that much. [00:00:48] I kind of try to find one that's honestly a little bit easier and not always, but definitely lately I always kind of try to find a. Because you sign up for them. And this last time I did not sign up. And if. If you don't sign up, you still have to. [00:01:02] You still randomly get signed up and have to do one. [00:01:05] Now this time I wanted to be signed up but I just spaced it because I would have wanted to go with my girlfriend but not get to. So I. I got signed up for a random one now. Yeah, what I was saying, normally I don't. I try not to do like the hardest one ever, something a little bit more and none of them are actually that hard. And like, I don't know, let me think of an example of like a hope. [00:01:33] Like, I don't know, you go out and fix up, I don't know, clean up someone's house, kind of whatever they need done, move boxes. There's, I don't know, usually yard work and like, I don't know, a couple people signed up for one go to yard work for someone in the community. [00:01:52] There's helping set up for like events and that's like kind of what a hope looks like. And there's usually some easier ones kind of around school. Like you can just work a shift in the cafeteria and that counts as your hope. So I've done that before and it's usually it takes up less of your day and it's just that and the rest of the day you have off to yourself. So that's why I've always kind of tried easier one. [00:02:15] Now for this last hope, I gotta go to a. [00:02:21] Well, I got signed off this random one and it was with a group of people I don't really hang out with all that much. But like, I don't Know, it's a group of cool people and it's like me and three other guys, I believe three or four other guys. [00:02:34] And we got to go to this lady's house now. I didn't really know anything about it going into it. I probably could have, but I just didn't really care to look. I was just like, okay, what do they want me to do? I'll do it. [00:02:46] Now we load up, just me and these two other guys. Since it's such a small group, I've gone to like bigger ones where they have like 40 something kids going. And it's just usually fun. You mess around. I mean, you're doing work, but it's not as you don't have to do as much because there's so many people doing stuff like raking leaves or something. I've done that at like Camp for a Hope. This one got four of us and we load up in the like our one car actually, I guess we took two cars, just. I don't know why, but load up in our vehicles and we got to this lady's house that's probably 8 minutes, 12 minutes from the school got there. It didn't really seem like there's a lot that needed to be done. I mean, just kind of looking at it sounded like we were going to be doing some yard work and raking up some. [00:03:36] Just doing like weeds and stuff. I don't know, not that much. And I mean, that's what we ended up doing now. [00:03:43] I don't know. I talked to the lady a little bit. She's really sweet and it was just kind of cool getting to connect to the person a little bit more. Like when I do the Hope or whenever I do one of these, usually I don't have to like, I don't know, I'm in such a big group, I don't really have time to connect all that much. And I was just getting to talk to this lady a little bit that we were helping out. We ended up doing yard work. And I mean, that was like at the point that it was actually hard work. [00:04:09] I mean, it's pretty sunny. Not, not like humid or anything. It's not humid around here, but it was sunny. And I actually got to like get my hands dirty. I got. [00:04:21] I took off my shoes and socks. I got my feet in the dirt. So I was just kind of taking it all in. It was a little bit windy and just really getting into it. I actually, I mean, we worked for probably around three hours, which we ended up getting done early. [00:04:35] But Cause usually it's about like the whole sign up was from like 8:30 to 1 or something. So we worked about like a good three hours and then we had a lunch break and then at that point sounded like she didn't really need that much more done. But during that three hours, like it was non stop work. I mean there's nothing too crazy. Like, I mean it's just weeding. But like when you're doing that for three hours in the sun, like it gets kind of tiring after a little bit. It's not okay, it's not. [00:05:01] I mean some of it, like we started out just kind of like picking weeds and like fixing up like her. [00:05:08] I don't even know what, it's like a bed for plants, like her plant bed or something. So we fixed it up and it's really cool getting to see that. That took us maybe 40 something minutes at the start. [00:05:18] I don't know, there was like a couple of us and then our other guy went and weed whacked just around the property. [00:05:24] But that took us a little bit. [00:05:26] But that was really cool just to see like immediate progress right there. Just making that happen and getting that done. [00:05:32] So I mean that was like a good start to it and already, already seen progress. Like so early on, like it looks like we made a big difference right there in that little spot. And then we ended up going to this one little patch of yellow or not. What is it called, yellow clover or something. I think it's yellow clover, like a type of clover. It was invasive to our roses. We got to like weed all that out. And that took like, that's what took us like the entire like the rest of the time. I mean like we were shoveling, digging this stuff up because it had been there for who knows how long. And like it's not like we even did all that much, but it took us a lot just get that area done. [00:06:05] And so that part of it was fun, really cool. [00:06:10] Now the part that I guess I was starting to touch on a little bit earlier, that's the actual work that we did. It's not like it was anything that hard, but it, I mean it actually, it was fun. It was good getting my, getting my hands in the dirt and just having a fun time with it actually like getting a little workout in. Not like I was sore or anything, but it was still, it was still good, you know, especially for like one of these when I usually don't do as much as I probably could. [00:06:35] Now the part that I really want to get at is the lady I got to talk to. [00:06:41] Her name was Sally. That was her name. [00:06:44] And her husband died, like, three years ago. She's 74, I think, is what her age was. She's really great for her age, just putting that out there. But Sally, she's living on her property and she's doing her thing. And I don't know, it's really helpful for her having people come out and do some of this yard work that she really can't do at this age. She could hire people to do it for her, but we just did it for free. And seeing her, I don't know, her face would just lit up because as we got there, like, she didn't look unhappy or anything, but she was so grateful. And that's so cool to see in people. Just, like, genuine thankfulness, gratefulness. [00:07:20] Then we got to cause that, you know, or we got to be a part of it. For my religious beliefs, I believe God is incorporating into that. And I mean, really the reason we're there at that moment, at that time. But that's really cool, seeing that happen and really making somebody's day. She made us food and stuff. She made us this popcorn that was like, oh, my. It was some good popcorn. It tastes like movie popcorn, you know, so, like, already really good. Like, nice and buttery. If you like buttery pop or if you like buttery popcorn, this is legit. And then there's some caramel little popcorns in there. And then. Oh, my, it was so good. This is a bucket she's offered to us, and it was so sweet. And then she gave us this cake that. [00:08:03] Yeah, she just gave us a cake that I could grind. I guess her grandkids were supposed to take, but she. They didn't take it a while back, so I guess we just got to have it. That was really cool. They made our lunches there, and I don't know, I didn't even talk for two or all that long, but just not, like, I don't know, maybe four or five minutes. Just telling her about myself, maybe my. I don't know, name who I am. [00:08:24] Just a little stuff like that. It's really cool just getting to hear from her talk about her husband and, like, how he used to help out and do all this stuff around the property. They've had it for, like, forever. She's thought about selling it before, but she always holds onto it. And it's so cool that we got to be a part of that and help her just have reason to continue to hold on to it. [00:08:45] So, yeah, that's our hope day. That's hope in general. It's a really cool opportunity that we get out here at the school, and it can be a lot of fun. But usually I still like signing up with people and like, you know, having more of my actual friend friends and whoever else I'm going to be going with. Like, that part of it makes it really fun, like being able to do all this stuff with your friends, but really just getting dirty, doing work and getting to make a change in somebody else. I think for me, at least, I had just the same experience and I actually ended up enjoying it a lot. And I got to talk to some of these guys a little bit. [00:09:24] Just having fun, finding some cool insects and pulling up worms that would just appear out of nowhere. [00:09:34] And, yeah, overall, just a really fun experience. [00:09:37] So I'll wrap that up here. It's a little bit shorter of an episode, but I just really wanted to touch on this and just talk about it a little bit because there's not that much to it. But it's really fun. And I guess I encourage you, whoever's listening, just go help someone else, you know, make. Try to make a change in someone else's life. Be the reason that someone smiles today.