Appa

Hello Friends!

Spring Break 2014 is almost over! I had the pleasure of spending the past week in Wheeling, West Virginia as part of the Spring Break Immersion Program. Specifically, I had the pleasure of living and working in the Soup Kitchen of Greater Wheeling with 12 other students. It was a true honor to work with such a phenomenal organization and with such great people.

Holy Cross students went to over 20 sites in Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Florida, Massachusetts, Alabama, Montana, New York, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey to learn about these communities and perform service.

These appalachia trips (frequently called ‘appa’) are increasingly popular, and now I can really see why. Working with the soup kitchen was such an awesome way to spend my week off from school. I got to travel to a place I had never been to before, learn about the people that live there and what life is like, and volunteer to recognize a need in the community. It is a really beautiful and mutually beneficial experience, because while I had the resources to travel and to volunteer time, the patrons of the soup kitchen had experiences to share with me and the manager had excellent stories about the town and the area. I learned so much about others and myself in such a short amount of time, and I could not be more grateful.

I think that this appa trip encapsulates one thing very well: Holy Cross gives me extremely unique opportunities. I am so happy to have met some of the people of Wheeling, and people from all class years here at Holy Cross. These new friends will be ones that I cherish.

Yes, there were times where work became tiring and tedious, and sleeping on the ground and showering less than once a day required adjustment. With that said, there is no better way I could imagine spending spring break. All of the trials are overshadowed greatly by the joy and fulfillment I experienced each day.

Now, I should be off to do laundry and reading. I hope your spring break was/will be filled with as much happiness as mine was!

DFTBA

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2014 at 4:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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