My Story/college

My Story - Kathleen Kerber

Kathleen Kerber - Bus Core Leader
U of M - Morris

The next several stories to be posted will come from Bus Core members of the College Pay It Forward Tour.  Keep checking back to read their stories as they prepare for their Tours in March!

Last March on a charter bus full of 35 people who barely knew each other started out from Morris. We were headed for a nine day adventure, the final destination was Memphis but five cities were between us and Memphis.  None of us knew how many wonderful experiences those cities had to offer us.  In each of those cities we did a service project, getting to know those we served as well as those who we served with.  There were so many stories and memories made on that 9 day trip. A whole note book of quotes that people just said, spur of the moment that hopefully will never be forgotten.  The friendships that were made, with 34 other people will never be forgotten.   There are thousands of stories that I would like to share with you, but the one that sticks out to me is one from the service project in Memphis. 

We had been on the bus for 7 days, we had met many people, experienced many things, and had done five of the six service projects.  We got to the last city, the celebration city. Busses from all over the mid west met to do one last major service project.  We had checked into a hotel the night before, had toured Memphis a little bet, had slept in beds instead of on gym floors and had had nice warm showers instead of unpredictable cold ones.  Most of us were under the impression that we were going to be planting trees.  The project the city was working on was planting hundreds of trees throughout this park right in the city of Memphis.  However, there were not enough trees for the hundred or so of us to plant for three hours.  There were other things that we could do for the park.  Another girl, Tasha, and I painted informational posts.  These posts were placed throughout the park, we painted two of them.  Tasha was one of the people on my bus that I had met and knew who she was, but we had never had a really good opportunity to talk and get to know each other really well.  Painting the informational posts with her was a wonderful time and a good experience.  As we painted, she shared experiences about studying abroad, which I hope to do someday.  It was very interesting to hear her perspective on things, so that hopefully I can have the best experience.  One of the best things is that we still talk know, we stay in touch. 

One of the most wonderful things about getting to the celebration city is the meeting all the other students from all over the Mid West.  Doing the service project in the celebration city brings the school and the students with so much in common together.  But it can also bring people on the bus together like so many of the other service projects.  It is just one more time for great experiences to evolve. 

The service projects that we were able to do helped us to learn more about the world we live in as well as those who we are traveling with and going to school with.  Sometimes a service project may seem long and tedious, but with the wonderful people you work with they are just a way to get to know each other and start conversations.  It never is dull, always exciting! Painting two informational posts is not a ton of work to do, but for only a couple of people to do, with only a few people planting hundreds of trees or painting tens of informational posts may take years but with so many hands working together talking laughing and getting to know each other into only takes a morning but the friendships and memories last a life time!! 

Now I am experiencing from the other end!  I am on the bus core for Morris and I am, with three other people are planning an adventure for 35 new people, working to help create wonderful experiences for the new group of people!  

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