Service by Sara

Service by Sara - December 2019 Scholarship Essay

At my highschool there is a really big ESL (English Second Language) program, every year those students write, in complete English, an essay that describes their journey into the United States. For the last few years, I have been asked to take portraits of the students to go along with each of the essays. I have always had a passion for the arts but never in a context where I would need to talk to people that I couldn't easily communicate with. To sugar-coat it I was really nervous the first time, these students, with much more challenging backgrounds than myself, were trusting me with putting a visual to some of their most personal stories. I was completely out of my comfort zone, people who had never really been photographed beyond an iPhone selfie session that spoke dozens of different languages were all looking at me like I was an intruder, which in some ways I was.
It's easy to take an image of someone that is comfortable around you and a camera, but you definitely learn more when they aren't. The first few students passed rather quickly with me only getting flustered a few times until I got to a student that was originally from Cairo. She had been in the states for a few years so we were able to speak a bit easier, but with ease in communication came a tundra of highly intense questions. She, in the most unique way, was craving to learn about anything, even facts about the focal length of my lens, which I can't even get my mom to listen to. I decided then and there that was my purpose to being there, to give anyone a person they felt they could be seen around. She talked about her life here versus Cairo, her boyfriend, and family, even her passion for classic dance, which she recommended for me to watch later at home.
As I continued taking pictures of all of these interesting characters I realized that I could see myself serving this way for the rest of my life. I was creating a visual that showed how these people should be seen; intense, beautiful and bright, not just people that you "can't" understand. A switch in me flipped, and I realised the versatility of service, I could use my passion to serve others and I could most definitely learn.