Last year I went to South Dakota on a mission trip to the Rosebud Indian reservation through the YouthWorks program. To have the opportunity to go on this trip was a once and a lifetime chance. The chance to converse with a different culture and learn all about their lifestyle was life altering. It made me appreciate where I live and the culture I live in but I could also understand and appreciate theirs. I loved that I could go to South Dakota and learn so much and then take it home and teach it to my family and other people in my area. That was what was so amazing about my trip; I came home and understood more about diversity and how to apply what I learned to my daily life. While I was there I had the opportunity to go to an elementary school and help with some of the classes. I have always wanted to be a teacher since second grade and I was extremely excited about this chance to help the kids. I met one girl there who really impacted my life. She was just hooked on t o me instantly, and we had the chance to bond over the course of the week. At the end of the week we had the opportunity to pick pen pals and she was not available to be chosen so I had to say goodbye to her there. But meeting that girl really enforced my dream of becoming a teacher and reminded me why I wanted to go for that profession in the first place. What worked while I was there was the team bonding, our group came together and we all became super close and we remain that way to this day. Something that didn’t work was the organization of the activities. Every day we would waste thirty minutes trying to organize where we were going when we could’ve been conversing with the people and furthering our relationships. What I learned from the trip is that I can’t always judge people on appearance because some of the nicest people I met while I was there were the ones I wasn’t expecting to like; or the ones who looked just a little bit out of the ordinary. Another thing I learned was to keep an open mind on the things that I could learn about other cultures, and to be more diverse. I believe this trip has changed me as a person and caused me to take a look at the way I’m living my life. The South Dakota mission trip has made me realize how important mission work is and how much it can affect someone’s life.
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