I have been a part of Bear Breaks since March of this year (2016) and in these few short months it has continued and continued to amaze me. I attended my first Bear Bpplied to be a trip leader because I wanted to help recreate my amazing experiences and memories for others. Luckily, I am co-leading the same Dallas trip this upcoming Spring with the amazing Sarah Harp and it has definitely been an adventure; however, my most recent experience with Bear Breaks is the weekend fall trip I took to Kansas City.
I realize there is a lot of background emotion tied to my words and that what I’ve said so far has way more weight to me than it would have to someone else reading this, so I’m going to try my best to explain the impact that this organization makes. On this trip, we were blessed with the opportunity to serve children at the Holy Cross after school program, The Upper Room, as well as preparing and serving meals for families staying in several Ronald McDonald Houses. The most important part of that is the word serve. We didn’t help them. We didn’t fix them. We served them. Service is much more than helping or fixing. Helping and fixing says “Here, let me do this for you because you can’t” or “You need help from someone, so I will do it.” Serving is an active decision to do things with people, not for people. Serving is an active decision to put someone else before yourself. Serving is an active decision to love someone more than words could ever say or do. This is why I look up to every single person from our KC trip, from the trip leaders to the participants to our advisor. Every person on that trip decided to give up time that would otherwise be their own in order to give themselves to others. They gave up sleep, social plans, money, time, energy, and more because they actively decided to serve. This is how communities are strengthened. This is how communities are improved. This is how we as a collective can make better lives for all. And this is absolutely crazy to me. If you asked me a little over two years ago what I thought of Missouri State’s Public Affairs Mission or what it meant to be a Citizen Bear I would probably have loved the idea but thought it was overrated or a silly concept to chase after. But it is now, through Bear Breaks, that I understand what this means. All of us from Missouri State are combined through one thing: we are Bears, but when we take what we have in common to the next level and actively decide that together we can and will make better communities is when we become Citizen Bears. I am proud to be a Bear. I am proud to be a part of Bear Breaks. But I am most proud that with my peers we can better our communities around us and become Citizen Bears dedicated to making a difference.