Proud Omicron Delta Kappa Member

Over the weekend I was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Society and I am honored to be recognized amongst other students, faculty, staff, and administration who are passionate about giving back to others and want to make a difference in this world.  The keynote speaker, Barbara Gorski, the Director of Learning Through Service, is someone who I have admired for the four years I have known her.  Her speech touched me deeply as she spoke of her experience with a woman in Mexico while rebuilding an orphanage for the community there.  This woman and her family were very poor and had little food or shelter to offer but insisted on hosting Dr. Gorski in their house during her stay in Mexico. One morning, the woman offered Dr. Gorski two eggs for breakfast when there were only five eggs total for her whole family.  She gave two fifths of her family's food when they had nothing else to a someone they barely knew.  Dr. Gorski was so moved by this act, she simply could not eat the eggs so she took them back to America and blew them out so they could sit on her mantle. These eggs remind her everyday of what that special woman did for her and demonstrates the importance of kindness, selflessness, and courage that should be present in our lives everyday.  She then went on to motivate and encourage us inductees that we have the power to make a difference in others lives with small gestures of friendliness and acts of kindness.  Dr. Gorski gave a plethora of examples that ignited inspiration for me to incorporate these acts into my daily life.  I have decided to pick up five pieces of garbage off of the street everyday, help someone with their groceries at the store and then take their cart so they do not have to return it, and sincerely smile at strangers way more than I already do. I don't know if these few examples will make a difference at all but it is something I feel passionately about and maybe I could inspire someone else one day like Dr. Gorski has inspired me.  As a proud ODK member, I took an oath to uphold the principles Omicron Delta Kappa represents and I desire to stay true to these beliefs.