Youthlinc as a Community

Community is a group of people that have similar interests and share the same views. Joining a community is definitely a sense of belonging. It's a way to create new bonds with people and open up to a group. At the beginning of joining a community, it can be very scary and nerve racking. It's like starting a new job. When you first start, you're new and learning the ropes of how to do everything and where you fit in the job. When joining a community, you have to be fully invested in the values that they all hold and be able to contribute to the group.

A community that I joined last year was the service group Youthlinc. Youthlinc is a service based community in which you travel abroad to help out the impoverished villages. To be fully involved in this community though, you must complete 80-100 service hours at different sites. I remember when I was first deciding to join, the number of service hours really intimidated me. I was nervous I wouldn't finish in time and that I wouldn't enjoy it. I was wrong. Over the 6 months that I completed the service hours, I made several new friends and had the experience helping out poor refugee teens. This feeling of giving and being loved is an important part to all communities I think. I felt so happy around these people I volunteered with and loved the refugee teens. When I was finally able to go abroad to Peru, it was a completely different experience of community. Sometimes belonging to a group can lead to some conflict or the feeling of being outcasted. The 30 volunteers I was with this time were almost all LDS. It was hard for them to accept me because I wasn't, and at times I felt left out of our little service community.