Hi everyone!,my name is Tanya Olvera as you can see by my title I wasn't able to attend any of the service learning projects Professor Hicks planned out for us to attend as a class. For some reason or another I didn't end up making it to any of the places the service projects were taking place because I dint have transportation and every time I tried going on the bus I would get lost ahahahaa! I regret not making it but their was only so much I could do. As I reviewed the blogs I realized what an amazing experience I would've had if I attended. I'm a person that loves to do community service because of that nice feeling of satisfaction you get when you know you have done something to help your community. What a better way of doing this than as a group people for example with friends or new people and have a life time experience filled with laughter and joy. Due to this inconvenience I had to take a long trip to Santa Monica beach on Monday,June 6,2011 when I first arrived, the first thing that caught my attention was the view of the ocean and the wild life.I decided to clean up this beach in particularly because I personally love this beach and I 'm a witness of how much this beach has changed over the years due to trash pollution.I come to this beach anytime everyday if I had the chance because I'm that kind of person that loves to sit at the beach and admire nature. From the distance where I was standing I wasn't able to see any trash but as I approached the sand I saw a lot of trash from paper,plastics bottles,bags of chips,to metal pieces. I knew right away I had to get my bag out and start cleaning the beach. I had a great time cleaning in the end i had to sit down to take a rest because walking through the sand was no joke you get tired. I knew that in the end even though people would rather stare at me instead of coming to help clean up the beach I felt I was making a difference.I learned that I was feeling upset because people didn't seem to appreciate what I was doing because they would just look at me thinking I was weird. Due to the fact,that I was the only person who was out there in the beach picking up trash instead of getting inside the water and having a good time.I felt unappreciated because I had been cleaning for four hours and I was tired ,sweaty and thirsty then I saw a bird and it looked at me and laid down in a place where I had cleaned the trash in that moment I felt overwhelmed with joy I had cleaned up a place where birds will come to rest. Apparently this was a place where the birds will come to relax but they could no longer stay there because of the excessive amount of trash people threw in their little spot.I knew that if their was someone that would appreciate what I did that day it would be the wild life because I was cleaning their home. This experience helped me appreciate just like I'm sure the birds and wild life appreciated what i did. I'm grateful that other people went out into the community to help clean our environment because in the end the environment is our home as a whole.I had an amazing time cleaning up the beach I think that I will be doing this more often but next time with a group of people to really make a difference and inspire people to do the same.
