TENORIO: Volunteering brings fun and joy

W hen I first met Ana, I thought she seemed kind of shy.

But on a recent trip to Gordman's, I stood in the shoe department, and she jumped out at me wearing some sassy stilettos hollering, "Hola chica!"

I thought to myself, "Boy, was I wrong."

I met Ana last semester. I joined the Latino Achievement Mentoring Program (now sadly out of funding and vanished) that catered to Latino and Latina teens in Lincoln public schools.

I joined because I wanted to get involved and become connected to the Lincoln community.

Sometimes I get tired of the college atmosphere – young adults, classes, clubs, dorm food. On the rare occasion that I get to see a toddler on campus, it makes me smile just because it's something different and out of the ordinary.

I thought if I became a mentor, I would get to know a teen and a family, and they would be a breath of fresh air in my day-to-day university life.

I was right.

Ana and I meet once a week for about two hours. We try to balance our time together between studying and social activities. Some weeks we go to Ivanna Cone; on others, we study math or Spanish.

She loves "High School Musical" – Zac Efron, to be specific. Over the summer, I found a life-size cut-out of Zac Efron on sale at Blockbuster. I had to get it. I gave it to her for her 17th birthday.

No matter what we do, we have fun. Ana brings out the spontaneity in me – the kind that you only have as a carefree teenager. For example a couple of weeks ago, we went to the mall and got makeovers by department store-hopping. We started out at JCPenney's new Sephora department, sampling eye shadows with Q-tips. We ended up at Younkers painting our nails at a make-up counter.

If I wasn't with her, I would have been too embarrassed to do it; I would have felt obligated to buy something. And sure, we did get a few disapproving frowns from the associates behind some counters, but what did they expect? We wanted to have a little fun. We're just a couple of jobless teenagers—or at least that's how I felt at the time. Jobless teenager or broke college 20-year-old: What's the difference?

Ana's got great study habits. On most days we've set aside for studying, she's already finished most of her homework by the time I pick her up, so we have more time for hanging out. On the rare occasions that I get to help her study, I learn something from her.

She's taking Spanish right now, and has taught me part of a chant that helps you remember your vowels in Spanish: E, I, A, O, U. El burro sabe más que tu. Antonio Gonzales come tamales. I've still got to learn the rest of it.

Before this, I always saw community service as a chore or responsibility.

When I was in high school, the only times I volunteered were when I had to fulfill some requirement clubs such as National Honor Society had. I never volunteered just to do it. I never knew how I could help out either. I scrambled a few weeks before requirement deadlines, racking teachers' brains for ideas on how to volunteer.