I love being able to help others, whether it's picking up trash around my neighborhood, or helping the old lady walk across the street while she tells me stories about how her grandson tries to teach her how to "text message on my cellular device". I enjoy my weekly routine of stopping by the daycare run by an old Colombian woman who barely scrapes by keeping her business running.

People expect me to clock this time, log it, and apply for a letter in community service. They say I probably have plenty of hours with all of the service trips I partake in. I don't understand the need to be recognized for this deed, it should be just a normal thing that kids and teens do willingly and not for hours to be logged and recorded just so they get a letter put onto their transcript.

I personally think that it is against what Community Service stands for, it's about others and not yourself. So why are we all taking so much energy to be recognized for something that we did, and getting credit for being a proper citizen in today's culture.

The overall point of this article is to not rat out those who have received letters, I understand it is about dedication. However, there is more to it than just a letter for a transcript so you can receive a high school diploma. It's being able to connect with the community you live in. Helping those on a local level, hopefully national, or even global level one day, while doing it out of purely the goodness of your heart.