Creare

Two weeks from now I will be taking that glorious walk to receive my diplomas. Many things and many people have defined my years at LMU, but those that I will remember most fondly are from my service org, Creare. As the first members of the org, our focus, in conversation, in planning, in service, surrounded the idea of “how do we define ourselves?” We built up ideas, we started “traditions” that would never be repeated, we wrote Creare prayers, and songs, and poems, and a whole host of other artifacts in the hopes that somehow these things would help define who we were. I could never have anticipated what we have blossomed into. We are not just men and women for others the way our mission dictates. We are men and women living mindfully of our impact on this delicate world. We are men and women who love, live, long for service.

When we graduate, the question constantly on our minds is “What will we do?” When we step into an office for an interview, they ask, “What have you done?” Creare has given me an answer to both.  I have done service, and I will do service. I have no idea what that means for me today, or what it will mean for me in a year, or five years, from now, but I know that this is not the world I want to leave behind.  Much more can be done to ensure the silenced voices are heard, the hungry mouths are fed, and the broken people are made whole.

In the service I have done with Creare and our placements, I have seen children, who are often saddened and scared, find fulfillment and happiness in the activities we do. The children I work with are battling chronic diseases, and they carry with them a burden that no children should have to carry.  Several times a month, I have gone to hospitals and workshops to create crafts and play sports to offer an outlet for our students. Offering them the ability to, even if for a simple afternoon, escape from the tubes, needles, and machines makes everything else in my life seem secondary. I have become a self defined woman of service because I have grown to understand what organization such as mine can offer a community of children.

I was fortunate enough to grow up without illness, without poverty, without hunger, but the readily apparent disparity of other children’s lives compared to mine move me toward a desire for action. I do not want to leave behind a world that cannot/won’t fight for its weakest members, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that happen; for lost, downtrodden youth, and all others who despair.

Creare struggled for a long time to create an identity, and I’m not certain it has one yet, but I do know that Creare has impacted mine. Creare created me.