A Glassful of Positivity

VOLUNTEERING A Glassful of Positivity

SourcePoint volunteers are renowned for the duration of their service, often sticking around for many years. Lily Bean makes that list, having volunteered in various capacities for the last 14 years. Not bad for a high school senior!

Lily started delivering Meals on Wheels with her mom, Laura, when she was a small child. She recently used her college entrance essay to describe the profound impact that experience has had on her life. Lily’s essay demonstrates how exposing children to service at a young age can have a lasting influence. For more information on volunteering with SourcePoint, contact Jill Smith, volunteer recruiter, at 740-203-2368 or jill.smith@MySourcePoint.org.

A Glassful of Positivity

The glass case stares at me. In the case rests the ornate decor and china bowl filled with festive candies. The glass case detailing parts of someone’s life. Photos intertwine through the case, special moments revealing someone’s happiest memories. Yet that joy is still present in the soul of who the glass case belongs to. I want what that case has, a love for life. The case belonged to Chloris, a 90-year-old petite woman whose hair was white as snow and wore glasses thicker than wood. A woman my mom and I saw every Friday for three years. Another Friday that I sit with my mom waiting for the same instructions with maybe a hint of new announcements that’ll get the volunteers of Meals-onWheels talking. Even 7-year-old me knows exactly what to do every week, what bags to grab, the clipboard of names we need, and the big white binder of information. Sharon walks in, clipboard in hand, her thick blond hair swaying as she struts up to the front of the room, her words not exciting enough for my 7-yearold attention span to focus on. I just wait until my mom gets up to know it’s time to go. I help my mom as much as my little muscles can as I lift the bags of stinky vegetables into our truck. Then, my mom lets me get into the car and flip through the clipboard of names to see who of my elder best friends we get to visit today. I patiently wait for the one house that makes my small heart swell. We weave from the big, scary highway into the small community of mobile homes. Right in the front is Chloris’ brightly white painted home with a perfectly kept garden and clean-as-ever deck. She sits in the window as we pull into the driveway. I jump out the car and up the loud metal ramp I stomp into Chloris’. She’s already moved from the window to her dining chair waiting for our arrival.

Chloris sits smiling with eyes lit up like a 5-year-old’s as I rush in. My mom walks in placing Chloris’ meals on her counter. Chloris starts asking her usual questions, “How was your day?” “Would you like some candy?” “Any crazy life updates?” My mom brings up family events that have happened and today Chloris begins to tell us about her family. Chloris was not a mother but she said, “My nieces are like my daughters,” staring at the photos in her glass case. Her husband was her best friend, but she always said when he passed, “I knew he wouldn’t want me to be a sad, mean old lady. So I choose to be joyful and love the life I have.”

Chloris always looked me in the eyes as she spoke, almost knowing how much my young self admired her ways. As she looked into my eyes that day saying how important choosing joy and love is, I realized how important being a positive person is in life. I could’ve seen delivering meals as a nuisance; instead, because of Chloris, I saw it as a way to appreciate life and the small things like a piece of candy from a 90-year-old woman.

So often I get caught up in the stresses of life, just trying to make it to the next day. Seeing Chloris enjoy the simplicity of everyday life, like seeing her volunteers once a week, sparked within me the idea that life is better when you decide to love, to be kind, and to be happy. Volunteering with my mom at a young age and visiting people like Chloris gave me the reason to live life with a positive perspective. Understanding that the perspective we have on life and the mundane everyday things, dictates how we see the world and how we treat others.