The Struggle, Ugliness In The Success, By Jermaine Cole

When I think of service, I think of a quote by Jermaine Cole, “Beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success.” There’s a big difference between volunteering at a dog shelter and going to a developing country with people living in difficult conditions. Once you see people literally living in a trash dump and cherishing anything they have no matter how big or small can be a reality check for how much you and other people around you take for granted. It isn’t hard to take the things that you expect to have for granted: hot water, a stable to place to sleep or three meals a day. Many of the kids in Nicaragua can expect one to two of these. Even though they had close to nothing, their resilience was like nothing I have ever seen before.