In March, 2005 I travelled to Rocky Mount, North Carolina to work on houses with my senior class. We worked with Habitat for Humanity to help build homes for people in need. We spent the week putting up siding on many different homes that were in the final stages of putting the outside together as well as building some structures on the inside of homes. We also did various projects in nearly complete homes like painting and putting closet doors and things in. We met a lot of the local people and also those who we were building homes for. We worked with those individuals to construct their homes and also with individuals that had homes already built for them. There was one particular gentleman named Walter who received one of the first homes that was built in the area. It was very interesting to hear his story and how he helps as much as he can with the new projects that they have. Walter goes around and takes pictures of all the groups that come to help and puts together collages with their pictures.  He has a room in his home where he hangs the pictures because he appreciates the work that people do for him. This was a very uplifting experience because we got to meet the people we were helping and were able to directly see the impact that we were making in these individuals lives. This trip made me a lot closer with my high school class and made me appreciate the type of people that I went to school with. To convince 46 people that were set on going to New Orleans to donate our money and spend a week of their time helping other people helped me realize how extraordinary people can be. It was a very eye opening experience that helped me see how fortunate I was growing up and how much other people in the country and world really do need help. It helped me see how much donating a week of your time can really help.