The World of Grandpa Don

The Lasting Impression of DREAMS

Live simply so others can simply live. At the time, this phrase was merely a muddle of words strung together; yet I never thought of how significant a role this phrase would play in the following years of my life.

I was a senior at St. Mary’s High School, and the first time I had ever heard this quote was during an information session about the DREAMS experience – a project that my fellow classmates and I would be partaking in over March Break. The project involves a group of students and staff from St. Mary’s who travel to a local village in the Dominican Republic to help improve the standard of living by building a home for one of the neediest families in the community. No words could do justice to the genuine happiness that I experienced while living in the Dominican mountains; therefore, I will discuss the lasting impression that it made on my daily life.

Throughout my entire high school career I had relentlessly worked at getting top grades to be accepted into a science program at university. Fortunately, I was accepted into McMaster’s first year Science program; however, I still had one more exciting endeavour (the DREAMS experience) to participate in before graduation, so Mac would just have to wait for my decision. For some time prior to the trip I had experienced mixed feelings as to whether science was something that I was still passionate about. However, returning home after the shortest and most unforgettable week of my life in La Cienaga de la Horma (a small village in the Dominican) I knew for certain that I had made up my mind about school. That September, I was enrolled into McMaster University’s Social Sciences program and to this day I have absolutely no regrets.

Today, I am an active member of the DREAMS@Mac club and am looking forward to returning to the Dominican Republic at the end of the month. Though we are still a small club, we have held numerous fundraising events, ranging from bake sales to coffee houses, in which all of the proceeds raised go directly to the cost of building supplies that are used in the Dominican.

However, out of all the great things that I have learned from being a member of this club, the one thing that will most definitely stick with me – as not just a pile of words strung together, but as something with true meaning behind it – is the saying: live simply so others can simply live, the motto that we have brought to DREAMS@Mac.

Lina

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