Dear person (whoever you may be),

Welcome to TALH.
Better yet, welcome to my blog. You may or may not know me, so I’ll introduce myself. My name is Ray, Ashleigh Ray. As I’m writing this letter, I’m a junior in the TALH program and something like a freshman in college.

I've got news for you, Newbie. Community service… I’m sure by now you’ve already gotten the spiel about how every student at TALH has to have a community service project, and he/she has to record two service hours every week. Sounds like no big deal, right? Well, it depends on how you look at it.

Spindletop

            My service project during my first semester at TALH was at the Spindletop Boomtown Museum about a mile away from the Lamar campus. If you come straight from the dorms, it is approximately a ten-minute walk to the front doors of Spindletop. For this specific service project, your job is to clean: sweep, dust, wipe, etc. Although the job may not be the most exciting, it’s the most convenient (especially when you don’t have a car), and can be pretty fun if you go with the right people.

            A friend of mine named Amber, a fellow junior, was in the same boat I was. Neither of us had a car. Neither of us could get a ride anywhere else. Spindletop was our best (only) option so we tried to make the most out of it. To pass the time while cleaning, we played music. For the most part, this music playing also involved singing along (even dancing on Amber’s part). After our two-hour commitment, we’d visit the C-store and grab some food, pizza if we were hungry, ice cream or popsicles if we weren’t. (If you don’t know what the “C-store” is, ask a senior to take you there immediately.)

How Amber Dances

            To be honest, your service project is what you make it. There are a number of service opportunities available in Beaumont. Nonetheless, the project you commit to might not be the most “fun.” Your mission, if you choose to accept it, will be to make it fun (or at least enjoyable) for the two hours you’re there. I’d advise you to try and get to know the people you're working with, be it your fellow TALH volunteer or the employees you see every time you visit and are working just as hard as (probably harder than) you. I went to Spindletop and gained a friend and a new perspective on cleanliness. Who knows what you’ll gain from your experience?

            In this letter, I’d also like to remind you that the service you do is not about having fun. It’s not about you at all actually. It’s about the wonderful people who are in need of your help, probably more than you know. Your community service is making a change in someone’s life, be the difference grand or miniscule. They’ll appreciate everything you do, and that alone should be the reason you serve. Not because you have to and not because it’s fun, but because it’s helping out someone who’d otherwise be lacking.

            Please remember, all the seniors are there for you. If there’s something you desperately want to do, ask someone who’s interested in the same project. Any questions you have, just ask. As a matter of fact, while I'm on this subject, go ahead and make friends with the TALH peeps. I've met some of the best people while at TALH, and believe me, they aren't as scary as they may seem. Sure they may seem a little weird at first, but you'll soon figure out that their weird meshes perfectly with your weird. Don't miss out on an opportunity to make friends while you serve (or while otherwise unoccupied). People are pretty awesome sometimes (and TALH students are awesome all of the time).

            As a lasting thought, I hope your first year at TALH is great, and I hope your service project experiences surpass mine.

Love,

Ashleigh

What's left

My experiences with Spindletop will be some I never forget. Sure the sweeping and dusting didn’t sound all that interesting when I first started the project, but as I’m nearing the end of my first semester with the TALH program, I find myself glad Spindletop was my first service project.

I didn’t think much of this service project coming in. In the beginning, I only chose Spindletop as my service commitment because it was the most convenient. Without a car or a ride, I was left with little else to pick from. My first day was awkward and went by a lot quicker than I thought it would. For two hours, I was stuck in the drug and confectionary building listening to Amber’s music, dusting, and helping her to squeegee the windows. When I left that day, I figured every Thursday after that would be the same. I was right in the sense that I’d be doing the same type of work every time I visited Spindletop. However, every day I worked at Spindletop, I enjoyed my time there a little bit more. The days I spent there were filled with music, singing, dancing, laughing, and snacking whenever Amber and I got a chance to.

Because of Spindletop, I’ve learned two things: that my time is what I make it and that community service isn’t about me. My Thursdays could’ve been terrible had I not tried to make them a little more fun. Without a friend and some nice IPhone apps, service would’ve been a lot duller. (And getting pizza afterwards from the C-Store always served as an incentive to go to Spindletop and do some cleaning.) But coupled with this “fun,” I had to realize that service projects aren’t about entertaining the volunteer, they’re about helping out the people in need of volunteers. Not many people think to volunteer at Spindletop. As a matter of fact, other than Amber and me, there’s only one other volunteer who shows up every other week. The Spindletop Museum needs volunteers to help with the menial tasks such as sweeping through all of the buildings and clearing out all of the cobwebs, but because there are so few, my work as a volunteer is needed.
Through this experience, I’ve learned to put the needs and feelings of others before my discomforts and myself. I may not always feel so excited to do the work, but afterwards, I’m glad that I have. Knowing that it’s helped the Spindletop staff makes all of the cleaning (and boredom and walking and sweating, etc) worth it. I know I'm not making much of a difference in their lives as compared to the students who volunteer at hospitals and at ESL (English as a Second Language), but I'm doing my best to improve their day to day life. Every building I clean is one less worry for Mark Osborne, the Spindletop Museum director. Every time I show up is one more volunteer to help out with the tasks that the other staff members are honestly too busy to complete. My impact may be minuscule on a big scale, but to me, I'm helping out people in need, and that makes my service just as important as any other service project out there.

As far as next semester goes, I don’t think I’ll be committing to Spindletop again. While the overall experience was great and taught me many things, there are so many more service opportunities out there. If I could volunteer at them all, I would, just so I could find out which one(s) suited my passions better. Even still, Spindletop has become a significant part of my life. After sixteen hours of sweeping, after thirty-two miles of walking, and after oh-so-many slices of pizza, I know this service project will be impossible to forget. In the end, it’s not going to matter how much fun I had at my service project. What I think matters the most is the impact we as volunteers have on the lives we’re meant to be helping.

Paranormal Activity

Arriving at Spindletop that Thursday was just like every other time I’d gone to my service project. The blonde woman from the front desk greeted us, Amber and me, and I had to ask her again to open the custodial closet.

After thanking her for doing that, Amber and I dropped our things off in the lounge area, signed the volunteer sheet, and made our way to the conservation building. The building was built out of wood and seemed pretty old. The boards creaked underneath our feet as we walked towards the front door which let out a creak of its own. Once inside, I sat down at the big desk at the back and glanced at the document of required work.

“NELW?”

On the sheet was an abbreviation for another building in need of cleaning: The Nelson and White Engineers building.

“We’ve never been there before,” I continued looking up at Amber.

“Do you want to go?” she asked, lazily scrolling through Facebook on her phone.

After a moment’s pause, I replied, “sure,” with a shrug, and we left for the unknown building.

Earlier in the month, Amber and I were finishing up cobweb cleanup in the residential area when I randomly asked her if she’d ever wanted to try on any of the clothes lying around.

“No!” she nearly shouted.

“Why not?” I asked, a little confused by her reaction.

“Usually old things harbor the spirits that used to own them. So, if you put on their clothes, their spirits could possibly overtake you. Don’t you believe in ghosts?”

I’d been asked the question before, but had never really given it much thought. Ghosts seemed like a weird idea people came up with to explain away strange events that happened without an obvious cause. However, after seeing how quickly Amber rejected the idea of putting on a dead stranger’s clothes, I started to wonder.

The “NELW” building was right next-door to the building we were formerly in. With our brooms and dustpan in hand, we crossed the threshold and prepared to start another day of boredom and cleaning. I grabbed my cellphone from my back pocket and started my Pandora radio, the Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé station. As Destiny’s child played in the background, I started sweeping the right side of the room, humming along as I did so. Amber did the same on the right, and we danced and sang for a few minutes.

And then the knocking happened.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

It came out of nowhere; three light knocks on the front door. I looked up from the small, dirt pile I was making and glanced at the door. I expected to see some Spindletop spectators through the window, but no one was there. After not seeing or hearing anything for the next few seconds, I resumed working, chalking it up to a sudden gust of wind.

A moment later, the knocking returned.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

I paused my music.

Tap.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Amber and I looked up at each other at the same time.

“This building looks clean enough don’t you think?” I asked, already sticking my phone in my pocket and heading for the front door.

“Yep, let’s go.”

We cleaned a few other buildings that day, but never returned to "NELW". Call me crazy, call me superstitious, but I’m not one for taking chances.