My Impact On Veterans

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“I have made an impact on veterans by:...”. I read this sentence over and over again, experiences and memories flashing through my head. Yet, I couldn’t think of anything to write down. I had the examples, I had the ideas, but the word impact, bold and jumping off of the paper, left me speechless. Impact. For the last four years I have spent my summers volunteering at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and as I stared at the question, I thought about all of the tasks I have completed and realized that I haven’t made an impact at all.
These are people that risked their lives fighting wars for millions of people that they have never met and will never meet. They arrive home to a few people saying “Thank you for your service” and are thrust back into normal life. These people are heroes to America, whether they have seen combat or not, and we as a society do not do close to enough to recognize their sacrifices. Every night as I go to sleep the last thing I see is the American flag from my grandfather’s funeral. Last year, every day I …show more content…
Veterans have made it possible for me to feel safe every morning when I wake up and go to sleep and I have to write about how I made an impact on them? Delivering mail and labs, pushing patients in wheelchairs, serving veterans free pizza, handing out cards and coffee on Christmas- these are nice gestures, but one day I dream that I can look back at my life and say to myself that I have made an impact. I want to wake up one morning, get out of bed, look in the mirror and see someone who has paid back the many unnamed faces, the people who have smiled at me in the hallway, the people who have died fighting for my safety, the people who are struggling to get back to a normal life. My heroes. Every day I will wake up and work my hardest, whether at school or my job, not for my own success, but so that I will have the opportunity to at the very least try to pay back the 20 million veterans of the United
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