Throughout this semester I have been gradually learning more and more about service and what it means to be an active citizen. In trip leader training we often discuss the active citizen continuum – Inactive Community Member, Volunteer, Conscientious Citizen, and Active Citizen. When I applied for a Bear Breaks trip I fell heavily in the volunteer category. I cared about giving my time and energy to an issue, but I viewed it as “helping” others and believed that, going into these communities, I was going to make some huge difference. While those aren’t bad views to have, they didn’t allow me to see the bigger picture. I didn’t realize that by using the term “helping,” I was dividing myself from those living in that community – I was saying “you aren’t able to do this yourself so I’m coming to help.” The bear break trip I went on last Spring Break helped me grow as a citizen and realize that what I should be doing is “serving” not “helping.” We may be going into a community different from our own, but it’s important to not let walls be built up between us, as volunteers, and those in the community. One important lesson I learned last year was that those facing the issues each of the Bear Breaks Trips address already know what they need and how to enact change and they are already working towards that, we are just lending our hands, minds, and hearts to the movements already happening.

I grew a lot from last years trip; I moved from simply a volunteer to a more conscientious citizen. I still have a long way to go, however. This really hit home for me last week after our trip leader meeting. All of the trip leaders are currently working on education and orientation plans for our trips, I was discussing these with one of our exec board members and I expressed how little I felt I knew. Here I am, leading a trip in the Spring, and I felt like I should be more educated and well versed in all things to do with service and my trip’s issue. I thought back to this last spring break and how I looked up to my trip leaders, I remember being in awe at how much they knew and believing that they had this active citizen thing all figured out. By comparing myself to them I felt far from ready, but then I realized that’s what these leader meetings are for. Nobody is expected to have it all figured out or to be the perfect community citizen that makes no mistakes. What makes a good leader, and a good person, is that they are open to learning and acknowledge that they don’t have it all figured out. Now, I realize I actually have grown a lot just in this semester, and I look forward to continuing my journey towards becoming an active citizen