Part 4: "Childhood and Poetry" by Pablo Neruda

In Pablo Neruda's short essay, he speaks about an experience he had as a child in his backyard.  One day while looking through the fence surrounding his house, he saw a boy like himself who reached out and handed him a toy sheep.  The boy quickly disappeared, so Neruda brought a treasure of his own, and left he boy a small gift in the same spot.  Though Neruda never again saw the boy, he kept the gift for the res of his life.

From this experience as a child, Neruda says that he learned one of the greatest lessons about life, that is the appreciation and affection from another person, especially someone that you do not know.  This ultimately brought Neruda to the idea that all of humanity is greater than the individual and that we are all somehow connected.  For this reason, Neruda spent much of his adult life leaving words to people he did not personally know, showing care for all people of the human race.

As RA's, I think we have a responsibility to show care for our residents and the people around us.  We have all been through semesters at CMU, and I'm sure we've all experienced those times when you're just so overwhelmed with all the work you have and everything that's going on, that sometimes all you need is someone to show that you're not alone in this.  It's important to show our residents that we're here for them and care about their experiences.  It will make a huge difference in the freshmen experience of our residents, but also, it will create a community where our residents can learn to care about each other and their friends instead of going at it alone.  It is important that we create a community of friends who encourage each other's goals, instead of a community of individuals.