MLK Service Day was a success. For all the middle schoolers who have no idea what I’m talking about, that’s when the high schoolers go do service on MLK Day instead of sleeping until 2 PM and eating too much junk food. That might not sound like much fun, but it actually turned out to be a great experience that I believe the school should continue for years to come.

We got to school at 10:30, so we got a little more sleep. After acting like idiots for thirty minutes, we gathered in the lunchroom and watched an “informational” video (that ended up being incredibly cheesy) promoting MLK Service Day. It wasn’t even well edited and the sound was off from the video, however, it still managed to really make us understand just how important MLK Service Day is. It talked about how Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his whole life to making this country better, and how, before recently, we took that for granted and were just happy for the day off without even thinking about why. We needed to do something to remember his service to the country, and what’s a better way to do that than community service? He did it his whole life, so it’s the least we can do to dedicate a few hours to it. Since not doing anything was obviously the wrong choice, Cistercian decided to join in.

After the video, we gathered in our respective buses going to different non-profits around Dallas and Irving. I went to Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses and furniture for the impoverished. It is a great organization, and was in great need of help, as there were clearly too many projects for the few workers there. We put furniture together, from tables and chairs to canopy beds. It was a great opportunity to help those in need, as well as actually burned some calories, the latter I rarely ever do. We also learned patience, as a few of us had to rebuild a part of furniture we had incorrectly put together, and attempt to help sell windows to people who knew little English. At the end of the day we all felt really accomplished that we had done good and been helpful to such a great organization, and that we got to have fun doing it.

Overall it was a great experience. I really enjoyed being given the chance to do good for our community in the name of such a great and important man. Even though it is a bit of a slap-in-the-face to call it a “day on,” and remind us of the sleep we’re missing, it is a great experience that really should become a tradition for years to come.