Take my dad, for example. He is such a motivated and diligent person who cares a lot about doing the best he can at work and improving his skills. He has struggled with English ever since he came to the U.S. over fifteen years ago, and, until this day, he still works really hard to make his writing flow. I've always just laughed it off and made fun of his "Engrish," as I am sure many people do. (Which, actually, pisses me off, by the way. Like that one time when Brian overheard this old redneck person at the gas station say "stupid Ayzhuns who can't talk English"..) I've only recently realized that I am skipping out on an opportunity to really help someone I love and change their life for the better.
Now, I am taking his emails about helping with paragraphs more seriously and actually responding in a timely fashion (so fast that he'll respond within 5 minutes of my last response with yet another paragraph---so, he's taking advantage of this.. but you know what? good for him). I will do everything I can to help my dad improve his English and be a little more on par with those Harvard PhDs at work.
Is that not insane? All these years, I've always been concerned with helping the children at the children's shelter or helping the community co-op when, really, my family and friends who may have needed my help were just sitting on the side.
So, think about service from a different angle. It isn't just reaching out to resource-less children in urban communities. It isn't even just helping Promote Africa. Service is about doing our best to reach out to someone, even if he lives in our house (or used to), even if he is our best friend or boyfriend, to change his or her life for the better.
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