Farewell, Kentucky!

After reflecting on our past week spent in Kentucky, everyone has different reactions and interpretations of our experiences. For some of us, working with Habitat restored our faith in community and selflessness in others. For others, it helped demolish previous stereotypes we may have cast on people based off of ignorance. One thing we can all agree on, however, is that this trip affected us for the better. To think one week could make such a change in our perceptions of the world is truly amazing and for this opportunity, we thank everyone who made this possible. Our sponsors, our friends from Habitat, and the families that let us help make those houses into homes. Our last day was spent painting a home we had been working on throughout the whole week. It started off as a blank canvas with bare walls, empty rooms, just waiting to be transformed. Throughout the week we started painting these walls, carrying in cabinets and securing the foundation, watching the house become more than just a shelter, but rather a place for gathering of communities, a place where a family can grow. We can only imagine how much this house means to the family when we've only been here a week and it holds a great importance to us. Every coat of paint, every nail we hammered, we tried to perfect in order to create an environment deserving of these families. If there's one thing we've realized after hearing all of these stories, these families shouldn't be honored to have these homes given to them, we should be honored to be a part of creating a home for these inspiring families. To put it simply, this trip reminded us how blessed we are to have homes, families, communities, our Kentamily, and especially the opportunity to volunteer. Now, we're heading home to spend the holidays surrounded by our families. We'll exchange gifts with everyone knowing the best gift of all we already received, a new perspective showing us how blessed we are to be surrounded by the ones we love.