A World Where All People Are Called to Serve Others

Many people perceive that a good education creates students who are intellectually smart. But, above all, I believe the only smart that matters is when people could use that smartness to benefit others. As I observed, in Indonesia, volunteer experiences aren’t something that is common. In fact, most of us have a lack of volunteering experience because it’s not really a thing here.
As I am raised in a small village in Indonesia, I used to see many people in the village working together to achieve a common goal. Families with better fortune mostly would be called to help other families, for example by renting their rice fields to their neighbor, so their neighbor could have a job and cultivate plants in that land. Of course, that kind of help is done by the elder and left the younger kept asking “what can I do for them?”
Because I like kids, I often volunteer to teach underprivileged kids in my city along with my friends from other countries. I am aware that the extent of my friendship connection from all over the world could be used to help these kids. The children are excited to meet them (the foreigner) because of the lack of accessibility for them to meet people from other countries, as they couldn’t help but stare at the green or blue eyes they have because they’re just so fascinated by how my friends looked. I believe that all kinds of actions matter. Helping others could start from the smallest action and even the smallest community, start from your neighborhood at home. Everyone in this world has multiple roles within, for example, myself is a student, a sister to my siblings, a child of my parents, and of course a part of the community in my neighborhood. If we want to make the world a better place for others, we should ask ourselves “have we taken enough actions in each role we have? Have we benefited others yet?” It’s never too late to start taking part in community development. I remember a quote by Mother Teresa about compassion in serving others saying that “It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts.” So although it’s small, imagine if we’re all in this together, it will have a larger ripple effect and eventually become big and impactful to others.