Day 6/6—Give Back to Others

“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”                                                 ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Of all the things I have discussed this week over the course of our Six Days to Success, giving back to others and being of service has to be what I call the great equalizer and a personal favorite.

Martin Luther King Jr. said it perfectly, it doesn’t matter where you are from, what you know, or what you cannot do. So long as your heart if filled with the desire to help another soul without needing or wanting anything in return—then you too can be of service.

People tend to neglect giving back. People interpret giving back as needing to throw money at this cause and that cause. And while there is a need for that [and I am not knocking monetary donations] such as in the case of natural disasters like the earthquakes in Nepal; the power of sitting with another soul and really seeing them is infinite and more meaningful then writing a non-profit organization a check.

Service is about being part of something that is bigger than yourself. I think for some people it’s just part of the fibers of their being and others need to make a conscious effort. But no matter if it’s innate or inane, there is a real need for us to fill the cups of others. Like the late Maya Angelou stated, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” So, where does one begin? How does one get involved and give back by being of service?

Personally, I have always found that the best way to get involved was to align myself with something that resonated with me. Aside from the obvious service work I do as a public school teacher in Los Angeles, I feel really passionately about genocidal atrocities. A large portion of the work I do in my classroom hinges around The Holocaust, Darfur, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, and the Armenia Genocide.

At the height of the conflict in Darfur, Sudan I partnered with Jewish World Watch to help educate my students on the conflict and how we could get involved without actually flying to a refugee camp. We fundraised at our school and within our community. It was amazing to see how my student’s families and friends whom are living in poverty selflessly gave what they had to a cause across the globe. The beauty about giving to others is it never matters how much. For whatever one can and chooses to give, is always more than enough. We didn’t want to stop there though. We wanted to have a bigger impact. We wanted the world to know we knew what was going on in the world and we weren’t going to just sit back and watch the horror unfold. I always empower my students to advocate for themselves and others for silence is an affirmation and if stop speaking up, it will ensure that history repeats itself.

So, I paid out of my pocket to commission vans to drive the students from Eastern Los Angeles to Woodland Hills to participate in The Walk to End Genocide. My colleague Alice helped me by volunteering to drive a van and also supervise our students. We made tee shirts, signs, walked and chanted for our cause. My students and I were so empowered by standing up and speaking up that to this day this walk reigns as one of the most defining features of my adult life.

It doesn’t take much to ignite the spark of change to be of service. It’s merely the desire to replace time with yourself and include time for others in your schedule. More recently, my husband and I signed up to volunteer with Imagine LA; an organization that pairs mentors with homeless families to help them get back on their feet. Some people in our lives chuckled when we told them we are going to start to volunteer because we couldn’t possibly be able to do it ‘with our schedules.’ Yes, our time together is minimal but we are still spending time together while we are helping others. Also, the way we see it is if we can’t be there for other people, what’s the point to living? In the end we only have each other and the relationships we form with others. If by being present, really being present means I can forever positively someone else’s life than that’s really living.

Start small. Let the service bug bite you. You can still make a mark on this world without needing to go out in the community too.

Start a community group. Meet with people in your neighborhood, read and discuss real issues in the real world and I assure that before long, you will be compelled to hit the streets and enact great change.

Right now I am the faculty advisor of a club at my high school called Stand Up, Speak Up. My former students were so moved by some of the work we did in our English class last school year that they wanted to start a club to bring awareness to our school, problem solve, and get involved. You never know who will be touched by the work you’re doing—service and passion go hand in hand and are contagious.

What are your interests and passions? How can you make time and space to be a better community member and help elevate others around you? Giving back should be called Gaining Back because the things you learn about yourself through helping others will echo in your life for eternity.