Youth Council Anonymous

4:30 pm. The senior citizens at the communal garden are depending on me to fight off the pesky weeds encroaching on their potato fields. My thighs burn as I furiously pedal, and my hoodie flaps wildly behind me like a cape-- a superhero racing to her calling. All I needed was a cheesy catchphrase.

The moment I arrive, fellow Youth Council volunteers squint against the blazing August sun to smile at me without pausing their work. I join them in their collective effort to eradicate a particularly stubborn stalk of pigweed, and our combined force successfully yanks it out, causing us to fall back in a heap of laughter. This shared spirit of altruism and teamwork amongst Youth Council members inspires me. Our mutual concern for environmental preservation and our determination to ensure the senior citizens a pristine land to garden upon is truly an admirable display of selflessness. More than this, it is reassurance that I can depend on these people to support me in my endeavors to improve society, no matter how ambitious.

As I humbly rose from a freshman member to Community Service Chair to President of over 500 members, the Executive Board increasingly served as a platform to expound my ideas to this passionate group. Last winter,...