Hope

We started off today with our usual long, busy, tiring commute to the worksites through the subway. After, we got off and boarded the Staten Island ferry, which lets you see the Statue of Liberty. When the ferry departed everyone scrambled to reach the side with best view.
Seeing the stair of liberty was when the reality of the trip truly sunk in on a personal level for me. It was a symbolic culmination of all the work that everyone has put in this year to reach this point. It filled me with such joy to see physical proof of the journey we've had together. The only thought going through my head was "we made it, I made it".
A few short minutes later we stepped off the ferry and boarded a bus which took us to the world cares center. After being given out materials for the day, a water and a t-shirt, we split off into our groups for the different work sites. At first, I didn't want to sign up for the painting site, I preferred sticking with the demolition and construction that had challenged me yesterday. But I found painting to be very different than I expected.
After a long (and confusing) bus ride we finally arrived at our worksite to find Ben waiting for us. Ben had come all the way for Portland, Oregon to work on this house for 10 months straight. His dedication to his work was amazing and I truly felt as though I was lucky to know someone like home and be able to share some sort of experience with him, no matter how small.
We soon set to work painting. My team, the green team, started working out way across every square inch of the walls, every square inch of someone's home. As we worked we imagined who would use this room. Was it a living room? Was it the bedroom of a little girl? Was it a bedroom of an old married couple?
We know now that we painted for a fireman, a school teacher, and their eighteen month old baby. Knowing that I will never get to meet those people is sad. But we all left that worksite completely covered in paint, hungry, tired, and with aching arms knowing that what we did was important became it gave people hope. Giving people hope in exchange for our time created a change in us. We realized that when we pull together as team we can truly change the world around us in ways we may not even be able to understand.
I am so unbelievably proud of everyone in the group and this day has truly cemented in my heart that we have the power to be great if we work together.
-Carly Dillis