I grew up in the upper middle class of India and I would have considered myself and my family amongst the privileged few. Being such, we had a servant for kitchen chores, one for washing our clothes and cleaning the house, another for gardening and delivery/grocery shopping purposes. Even at an age as young as five, I knew that they worked for us but I was taught to respect them as people just like us and also being that they were my elderly. They were good people and we would often have lunch or dinner with them and those memories are still with me. My mum and dad instilled kindness and giving in me from a very young age so much so that I still have trouble recognizing between what to do for others and when to place myself first. Growing up, I witnessed many instances where my parents placed their selflessness over other things in life.
One such instance was the day my father came back home without shoes, his watch or his coat. When I asked him what happened to his belongings, he said he’d given those to someone who needed them more. He later told me that he gave it to a woman who was begging on the streets for money while she barely had on any clothes and a little infant in her arms. Then, there was a time when my father’s alcoholism and smoking got worse and he befriended some people who were only after his money. He lent out a lot of money to these “friends” of this to the point where he forgot to pay for the household expenditures. Soon, we didn’t have enough for even milk and my mum had to ask for help from my grandfather. There were times when we didn’t have enough food at home for all of us and my father would still bring home his drunken friends and demand that they are fed. One afternoon, my mother was trying to feed me and she suddenly split the food into two portions. I thought she was doing that so we could share it together and that made me happy. She opened the front door and there were three kids outside, begging for food. She was smiling as she gave away the half of our food. I quickly grew angry. Once they’d left, I asked her why she gave away the food when we didn’t have enough for ourselves. She replied with, “you’ll feel a lot more filled if everyone has a bit of food in their stomach.” I didn’t understand her or what she did at the time but today, I respect her beyond measure.
My parents play a huge role in my sense of giving back and there are many other reasons as well. Even though I experienced poverty for a few years, I still won’t be able to understand what some of the people around this world experience in terms of lacking food, clothing, shelter, money, etc. Even just experiencing what I did, was something that helps me stay kind and empathetic towards those around me. I’ve also had a weak immune system since birth and it’s definitely hindered me from partaking in a lot of things that other children seemed to do easily. Even with that weak immune system, I still remain a lot more privileged than many other children I’ve come across, both in terms of food insecurity and sickness. That’s why I started working to help create a food pantry at my past college so that I could help contribute to alleviating some of the food insecurity in my nearest community.
I volunteered here and there until I started working with Alternative Spring Break Outreach to travel out to Nashville, Tennessee and help their local communities for the span of a week. We accumulated 14,000 something hours of volunteering at different local places. That trip however, cost a good $400-600 so even though I wanted to help, I could not accumulate that sum of money again for the following year. After that, I joined a non-profit organization called Camp Kesem where they fundraise around $90k in a year to help send children whose parents or relatives are affected by cancer, to camp for a week with other such children. Even though I’ve had previous experience volunteering and giving time towards a cause, this was my very first time actually fundraising a large sum with a group of passionate individuals and it was a wonderful experience. I soon learned that another reason was because I wanted to escape things that I was enduring in my personal life by giving my time and energy to others in need, especially children. No matter how busy I became with school, work and internships, without fail, I added on some form of volunteering every single year.
While I was working with Camp Kesem, I came across news and information on A Moment of Magic Foundation. It was a new organization started by college students at the Mount St. Vincent College that was aimed towards hospital visits for children enduring cancer in nearby hospitals. They dressed up as some of the famous characters that the children both looked up to and adored. The volunteers would sing, read stories, color, etc and also help fundraise for anything related to the children’s hospital bills, etc. This really seemed like an organization that I wanted to spend my time developing in my community so I took on the task of bringing a chapter to Stony Brook. Although we are not a Character Chapter and visit hospitals directly, we work towards fundraising large amounts of money to help send those volunteers to hospitals in our stead. As a Magic Maker chapter, we continuously hold bake sales, large and small-scale fundraising as well as social events, collaborate with many other service organizations and plan out many more fundraising efforts. Initially it was difficult because of the amount of paperwork, all the red tapes and the pressures of leading a brand new organization amongst other established ones. I can proudly say that right now, it’s become one of the most rewarding experiences for me and I constantly find myself gaining so much more out of this organization than the time and effort I contribute. Whether it is in the form of time, money, energy or anything else I could possibly help with, I try my best to give it to someone who needs it more than I.