As I embark on my third and final New Orleans Service trip through North Middlesex, I relate the experiences I look forward to this upcoming week with an experience from a few short weeks ago.
      At the MASC Leadership conference in a workshop with a man named Houston Kraft, students were asked to choose just three words that would describe our life the way we hope to be remembered if today was our last day on Earth. Deciding on these words did not take me long, and I raised my hand immediately.
      "Determination, compassion and integrity." Those three words were shared with the other students in my workshop and forgotten at the end of our time in Hyannis.
      Tonight, at the activity with J.A. I gained a reminder of my words. The three words that I desired to be remembered by came back to me, and tonight I made the conscious decision to put these three words back into my life. Not only here in New Orleans, but when I get home as well.
      I plan to use determination this week to accomplish any task at hand. I will be compassionate of my peers and to the local community that we are working for. And finally, with every inch of my being to understand integrity. Integrity is a complex word, but one which I plan to make into my way of life. Starting this week I will not only act with integrity but recognize it in others.
      My final trip to this wonderful city has already changed me. I came here with a different outlook than ever before, and when I leave I will have the mindset to "keep the NOLA experience in the perspective of everyday life."

M.S.