Catherine Stewart
Comm. 150 Final project paper
I participated in the “Catch a Smile/Pay it forward” group, and also in the “Family History” group for the final project. These were great groups, and I am glad I got to be part of them. I was only able to get 17 hours of service between these two projects though. This has just been an incredibly busy semester for me and I was not able to put quite as much time into them that I was supposed to. And, yes, that was a lame excuse I just used J. The hours that I did get though were definitely time well spent and wonderful experiences!
The “Catch a Smile/Pay it forward” group was a really great group to be a part of. For this project our goal was just to brighten people’s day and get people to smile, and then share their smiles and positive attitudes with others who could use a lift. We met together a few times on Tuesdays before devotional to spread the joy. The first couple times we got together as a group we spread out to different areas so we could reach a larger number of students. Our hope was that it would be at least a bit of a chain reaction. That we could make people smile and that then they would make an effort to smile at someone else to and that it would continue passing along.
The first time we met as a group, we met in the Hart about an hour before devotional was going to start. Brittany had made a bunch of really cute smiles for us to pass out. It was hard not to smile just looking at them. They were on colorful crate paper and just super cute! We decided to split up and cover the different entry ways of the Hart to pass out the smiles. I am, though I know it pretty much goes without saying, a pretty quiet girl. I am not really one to get excited about the idea of approaching people and telling them to smile, so this was a good group for me to be a part of to help me stretch my comfort “bubble.” I walked around smiling and passing out “smiles” until it was time for devotional. My cheeks hurt, but it was worth it. And after a while of smiling so much I think I must have caught my own emotional contagion because I couldn’t quit smiling even when my cheeks hurt so bad that I really wanted to quit! Smiling really is good for soul!J I was happy the rest of the day, partly because I had been smiling so much, and partly because of all of the people that had smiled back at me while I passed out smiles! It was great!
The second time we met was an hour before devotional at the library. We all made it a team effort to make smiley faces with positive and encouraging comments on them to pass out. Once they were made and cut out we spread out and did the same thing that we did the first time, only this time we spread out over the campus, not just in the Hart. I made a special effort to smile at those who looked like they needed some extra encouragement. It was really sweet and rewarding to see faces that looked really discouraged break into tender smiles. That non verbal communication is a really powerful thing! I really do believe what we learned in class is true, that most of the emotional messages we get are from nonverbal communication. It was really interesting to study people’s faces to see how they responded. Some people gave courtesy smiles, some gave goofy but genuine smiles, and then there were some that had smiles that made me want to stop them and give them a hug because it was obvious that they needed one.
My very favorite time that we met as a group was on Thursday. We met up at the Crossroads and just stayed together as a group. We had a few signs that said “Smile!” and “Don’t forget to smile!” and we stood where all the student traffic passes through while holding them. People were great! We just stood there and smiled at people and they gave us some of the BEST smiles in return. We got a lot of comments like “thanks, I needed that” and “you all just made me so happy!” It’s hard to write down in words how fun and great it was! There was even a guy that came over to us with his ukulele and asked us if he could join us by playing his ukulele because he liked what we were doing. He was awesome, and his music really added to what we were doing. How could anyone not smile?
While most people seemed to appreciate what we were doing, and were happy to share their smiles with us, I was reminded that there are always going to be people who are negative and who don’t want to let anyone in. There were a few students who did not want anything to do with what we were doing, and they definitely didn’t want to smile. So, they didn’t. Noticing this really made me think about the things that we have learned in class this semester. I especially thought about how much of our communication climates we really control. There we were as a group smiling like crazy. People all around us were smiling like crazy, and yet there were still people who refused to smile! I thought about what we learned about clear at the beginning of the semester about psychological “noise” and I wondered how much that plays into the climates that are created. I personally think that it plays a large role. I know that for myself, when I have a lot on my mind it is harder for me to think through and respond how I should, or how I would like to in certain situations. I think that those times when it seems the most difficult to love people or have kind thoughts about them is the time when they need our love and kind thoughts the most. I love Elder Maxwell’s book “All These Things Shall Give thee experience.” There is a part in there where he is talking about service and love and he says something to effect of it is easy enough to serve those who appreciate our service and who are kind and loving back to us, but we also need to be serving and loving those who are so grumpy they are practically begging us to love them. I think it is in those times when we learn to love and serve those who are difficult to love and serve that we ourselves can learn and grow the most, both spiritually and in our ability to communicate more effectively. Refusal to let others negativism rub off on us makes a difference, maybe not to the negative person, but at least it makes a difference to the person refusing to be effected by the negativism.
The second group that I was in, the family history group, was completely incredible! I loved it so much and I am going to continue to work on it even after this class is over! It was a very simple group, but it was great. For this group, we decided to index names through familysearch.org. I had never indexed before so it was new for me. We set the goal as a group to index 300 names each. When we first made that goal, I thought to myself that it would be a fairly easy goal to reach and that I would be able to get a lot more than 300 names done. But, I am really glad that we decided on 300 because it took me a lot longer than I thought it would! The first time I got on to start indexing I was startled by how difficult it was for me. The names to be indexed are all from the different censuses gathered from all around the United States, actually, from all around the world, I just stuck with the United States ones because I am more comfortable with them. The names and information to be extracted is all in cursive, and some of it is very difficult to read. However, the more I indexed the easier it was for me to get the information I needed.
I did this mostly on Sundays as a Sunday activity, but I also did it occasionally during the week too because it was so interesting to me. I frequently had to ask people around me what they thought certain letters or words were as I was working on them. It was great! The thing that I loved most about this activity was that it opened my mind to not only what some people had to deal with back a long time ago, but it also helped me become more aware of the family dynamics and lives of those around me today. As I would index I frequently found myself trying to picture these people whose names I was working on. I was amazed about even just the little bit that I was able to know about them. Some were immigrants from Germany, Italy, France, or a number of other places. Some were older and had never been married, some were older and had just gotten married for the first time a couple years previously, and some were very young and already starting their families. One household that especially caught my attention and touched me was one in which two widowed sisters who were in their late forties and early fifties were living together, and sharing their home with their young twenty seven year old niece, and an even younger little maid. I still wonder about what their lives must have been like. It must have been so difficult for them. If there is anything that could encourage me to work hard and strive to endure well it would be them.
The thing that I was not really expecting from this activity, was just how powerful it would be to me. There were times when I would be struggling to read a name and then I could suddenly see the name clearly and I knew what it was. It was almost like having someone standing next to me telling me what it was. I could almost hear the people saying that they did not want to be forgotten. It was such a sweet experience, and a privilege for me to be able to help those people whose names I was indexing.
As I worked on these projects that I participated in I kept thinking about something simple that President Monson instructed in a talk he gave called “The Joy of Service.” He instructed: “Fill your minds with truth, fill your hearts with love, and fill your lives with service.” As I strived to focus on those aspects as I worked on indexing names and sharing smiles, I was able to feel like I was truly becoming what the Lord wants me to become. What a great experience!
