"What good are you?"

This morning, Tom posed the questions of "What good are you?" and "What do you bring to New Jersey?", both in the context of the mission trip and in general. I admit that I was a little intimidated by these questions, because it is hard to vocalize what role you think you play in any group and it is hard to express what you think are your best qualities. As I thought about it throughout the day, I realized that for me, it was not necessarily what skills and qualities I brought to New Jersey, but rather the qualities I bring back home. I have learned about what skills I can bring to a worksite, which include my passionate fixation on certain projects (which includes a bathroom that we have coined 'the disaster room' because of its many many problems), but I now have a deeper appreciation of how these skills will transfer into my life back at home and into the future. I came to New Jersey with basic construction skills, and am not leaving with much more. What I am leaving with is a deeper yearning to improve these skills and a stronger understanding of how my personal qualities help me be successful in group settings and individually. 

- Avery