The Girl in the Pink Unicorn Hoodie by Ryuen

The Girl in the Pink Unicorn Hoodie by Ryuen - May 2018 Scholarship Essay

On one fateful Friday night, I had the honor of shoveling artificial snow for two straight hours. I was at my city’s Winter Wonderland Festival, and there was a station where the ground was covered in ice. The only way to keep this “snow” from hardening was to constantly shovel it around. The whole time, I complained to myself about how useless, cold, and tiring my job was. This was not my ideal way of spending a Friday night. However, after hours of back-breaking labor and constant verbal reminders to the older kids to not pelt the little ones with snowballs, a little girl wearing an oversized pink unicorn hoodie asked me to help her build a snowman. I didn’t see any harm in taking a small breather, so I decided to help her. As we built, she asked me innocent questions, like what my favorite food or color was. I answered them without putting much thought in, but then she asked a question that caught me off guard a bit. She asked, “Why do you volunteer?” As I thought about her question, her mom told her that she had to go, so she compliantly started trudging away. I immediately called her back because she forgot the best part of building a snowman: taking it down. She took a few steps back and went full speed into the snowman, laughing as she tumbled to the ground. As she got up, her face was covered in ice, and she beamed at me with a smile that I would never forget, one with pure happiness. As she merrily skipped away, I thought to myself, “That’s why I volunteer.”
Even though I spent two hours doing extensive labor, it wasn’t until the last few minutes that I realized what I was really doing. I wasn’t just pointlessly shoveling ice and yelling at kids for throwing snow. I had a vital role, and that was to create this snowy environment for kids that have probably never seen snow in their life. It’s funny how as we grow older, we tend to lose focus on the important things in life, and how we sometimes need a little girl in a unicorn sweater to remind us about them. She taught me the true value of a smile, and from that day forward, I’ve never taken a smile for granted.
That night, I realized what volunteering really meant. Volunteering isn’t just about sacrificing time and effort. It’s about serving others wholeheartedly and genuinely wanting to make a difference. All the hours and effort put into volunteering is rendered useless if the heart isn’t there. This not only pertains to volunteering, but to life as a whole. I learned that going through the motions, no matter much I fake it or how long I fake it for, will get me absolutely nowhere. If I truly want to accomplish something, then I have to go for it with a purpose and an undying desire to achieve that goal.