Wired on caffeine, books in hand, the comfort of sleep days behind you. You feel like Superwoman. Pictures framed in your room seem your only proof that your life is intriguing.
As a rule, I’ve noticed four segments of life in college hold a lot of weight. In my opinion, they’d be: School (obviously), Work (how are you paying for everything?), Friends/Social (are you remembering to have fun?), and Relationships (family, your man etc.). I tend to notice that if you’re on top of three/four categories, you’re doing all right.
However, a question I’ve never really asked myself until recently, and a question I think often goes unanswered by most is: What am I doing for my community? How am I giving back?
As you whir through your day, interrogations zip through your head: What am I doing to make sure I get that internship? How much time do I have before I have to change for work? Did I eat today? The hours turn over faster, faster, faster as the calendar approaches November and then December.
If you’re anything like me, the first thought of giving back to your community may be shunned. If only I had the time! This excuse has worked for me for years. I hadn’t felt guilty and comforted myself with the promise: One day I will.
And I do agree that college can be considered a time of discovery and be an emphasis on yourself to further those revelations.
But what about discovery of oneself through helping others? What if volunteering was considered something you do for yourself, instead of just another splash of red ink in your already stuffed planner?
I was asked over summer what I do for myself, to make myself happy? I answered: spending time with my friends, going to the beach, writing.
Sure these activities are fun, and they each have the potential to allot a certain amount of contentment for me. But does it go deeper? When I look back at my answer, each of my replies can be sorted into that Work, School, Social, Relationship file cabinet I’ve created to manage college thus far.
What about something that gives me a deeper sense of fulfillment in my life? It’s tempting, easy to get completely enthralled in the day-to-day trials of college this and future that. And after years of meandering around campus and hearing snippets of other people’s conversations, it is clear that countless others are content in the cycle.
I’m not suggesting that you go overboard and swamp yourself, spreading too thin as you attempt to give back. I myself am just beginning my journey, and am looking into volunteering at a retirement home down the street from my house.
But even if we could all just commit a few hours a week to something outside of ourselves and the lives we are so tightly wrapped up in, perhaps it would grant us a sense of meaning we may have lost sight of. Perhaps it could help us to attain and hold on to that glimmer of balance that many of us lose upon entrance into adulthood.
In high school we had to meet requirements of community service to graduate. But do you remember how awesome it felt helping people out? Imagine that feeling magnified in knowing you truly are trying to make someone smile because you want to, not because you have to. In my life, those moments are the ones I’m proudest of. And pride is irreplaceable, intangible, and irremovable.