My fourth artifact is a picture of me standing next to a young girl that I mentored on AmeriCorps during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college. AmeriCorps is a national service organization, and during this summer they partnered with HOPE, an international nonprofit organization, to have a mentoring program for children and adolescents who were "at risk" from northern and inner-city Philadelphia. The kids were defined as "at risk" if they lived in a violent, low-income neighborhood. The girl in this picture who I am referring to as Katrina was the girl that I was paired with. My role as a mentor was to love her and support her and be her friend. However, Katrina did not want anything to do with me, so she was constantly saying mean things to me or ignoring me and pretending that I did not exist. Despite all of this, I chose to love her unconditionally and be kind to her no matter what she did or said. I learned that true love and true service require giving even when you know you will not get anything back - not even a "thank you" or a smile. I also realized that when I was focused on serving others, I forgot about my fears and my desire to be perfect. I overcame the timidity that usually holds me back because I wasn't focused on myself - I was focused on someone else. As a nursing student, I have learned that the same is true for my patients. Sometimes they just won't understand that everything I am doing and saying is to help them, and no matter how nice I am I may still get yelled at. However, that doesn't matter, because I am not there for myself; I am there for them.