Volunteering with your heart

I think I shall speak for the innocent group of people who had been suffering from injustice for a long time. These people, like myself, are youngsters who always get "accused" of not participating actively in social/community work (or you can say CIP).

They always hear themselves being labelled as lazing around instead of contributing to society by doing some voluntary work. Most of the time, it is their parents who wronged them.

Like when they see other youngsters going from house to house to collect whatever stuff or a group of them in uniform doing social work, they will think that their son/daughter should participate as well.

I would like to take this opportunity to make this clear once and for all. If you happen to be reading this and have a parent like that too, make sure he or she reads this too.

Those so-called volunteers yes, I said so-called, 9 out of 10 of them are not volunteering with their hearts. Do you really think those students really choose to do community work on their own? It's for the sake of that few CCA points!

Do you really believe that these students will continue volunteering after achieving 30 hours of CIP? Well, of course they will if Singapore beats England in a football match.

I have seen countless of examples. My ex-classmates, current ones and friends outside, they are just let's-do-it-now-and-after-we-are-done-we-won't-do-it-again.

So, next time when you see a group of youngsters (especially those wearing the same type of shirt), think twice before making a conclusion. They wouldn't have exist in front of your eyes if CIP didn't exist to be mandatory.

Back to myself, I am not saying that I am lazy nor am I trying to boast that I volunteer with my heart. One does not need to let everyone know if he/she does charity/voluntary work.

To all parents out there, before you criticize your child for not taking part in these activities, think of the last sentence in the above paragraph. Maybe, he/she did volunteer but chose to remain silent over it.

That is what I call volunteering with your heart, not those who are a slave to some petty CCA points.