Volunteer to Friend by Nate

Volunteer to Friend by Nate - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

As a member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's baseball team, I was able to participate in various volunteer activities, but one in particular had a significant impact on me. We went as a group to a rehabilitation clinic for people brain injuries/disabilities. It was there I met Andy. Andy was the same age as me, he liked the same things as me, and was even from close to my own hometown in Kansas. Andy had been in a head-on collision and suffered serious head trauma and a stroke. When we first met, he was at his beginning stages of rehab. His eyes were full of life but his body was essentially cut off from his brain, and he had to relearn most physical functions, including communication.

A few weeks later, I returned to volunteer on my own, and while I had no pertinent medical training, they were happy to accept me, and said the best use of my time was just hanging out with the patients, specifically Andy. I went 3-4 times a week to do just that; hang out. Behind the hours of physical therapy and limited communication, Andy was a kid like me who just wanted to do and talk about normal things. We mostly watched sports together, and talked about anything and everything people in their early 20s do. I accompanied him during physical therapy and helped when I could. When he left the clinic and moved back to his parents' house, I visited there as well. As his physical abilities progressed, our friendship stayed the same-talking about sports.

I moved abroad after graduating from college, but Andy and I kept in touch. He was not a client or a patient to me, but rather my friend. If we had gone to high school together we would have hung out. I came home recently to prepare for graduate school and we occasionally meet up. He is doing really well now-he even drives to meet me. Of all the volunteering I have done, this experience was especially impactful. Andy has and is still going through an ordeal that is unimaginable, and has never once complained. In the blink of an eye his whole life was changed, but that hasn't stopped him from living. I would like to say that we made an emotional connection through our time together, but there were no epiphanies or moments of weakness. Andy doesn't know weakness. We just became friends who watch baseball together.