As I am here in California doing my internship, I am away
from my family. Add in the fact that my
parents live in west Asia, and my siblings multiple time zones away, I ended up
just staying put for thanksgiving.
However, I had no idea what to do.
In previous years, I had always volunteered to work on Thanksgiving to
make more money. To avoid cooking, I
would usually stop by a fast food restaurant and pig out by buying enough fatty
foods to last me the rest of the day, and sometimes beyond. However, with no work to be had, I found out
from a rugby teammate of mine that the Santa Monica Shelter provided food to
underprivileged families on thanksgiving, and that I could volunteer to work
there.
So on Thanksgiving I showed up at 6 am to volunteer, and
there was a huge line of people. As it
turned out, this was one of the only places that you could volunteer and work
without having to sign up. Because of
that, there were probably 60-80 high school kids there to get service credit
for some school class. This place was
also allowing service to count towards community service for the penal system. This attracted 60 or so parolees as well, who
were talking about past crimes, where they served time, etc…
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| My "Shift" Of Volunteers Standing Around Our Handy Work Waiting For The Doors To Be Opened For The Families |
There were so many volunteers, that they would only allow us
to work in two hour shifts, then ask us to leave and walk around the building
and stand in line by the side entrance to volunteer for another shift two hours
later. I stayed for two shifts (6 hours)
and then decided it was so crazy that I would just head home and watch
football. It was fun to see some of the
families come in, sit down, and then have us bring the food to their tables restaurant
style. However, it quickly became
evident that there were more volunteers than there were people needing/wanting
to be served. Because of this, the
organizers asked us to sit down and eat once our shift was over, as they had
excess food.
But I had already planned to do the fast food thing like I had
done in previous years, so I was ready to splurge. But to my shock, Wendy’s and Taco Bell were
both closed. Thank heaven for Jack in
the Box, as they were open. It didn’t surprise
me at all that there was a lot of people inside, as well as long lines in the
drive through. I ordered multiple
burgers and a large shake. The burgers
would be able to last me for lunch, dinner, and potentially breakfast J (don’t judge, as a
single male, I am allowed to eat fast food for breakfast).
As I had not eaten anything all day, the food only lasted me
up until just before I went to sleep, causing me to grab some pizza for lunch
the next day. But all in all, it was a
very memorable Thanksgiving.
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