Lifes Lessons: Once She Makes It

Question: What do you think about the balance between the successfully financed and the responsibilty of serving others through giving back ?

The responsibility that I would like to hold in someone’s life is not to carry them, but to inspire them. I am a young woman who knows how it feels for all of life’s cards to be faced against you. It takes a person of strength, determination, and perseverance to uplift themselves against all odds. There are some, however, that belong to a fortunate crowd of people that maintain stable success and a wealth of finances. Everyone is all too familiar with the saying, “life is what you make it”, yet what happens once you have made it?
I stand by the notion that if you are financially capable, it is responsibility to give back, but there is an extent to how and what is given. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with free money, but that only gets a person so far. Sometimes it isn’t how much money someone can give back, but sometimes it’s what you can offer the person in need of help. Personally, I like the idea of being given money so that I may become financially stable and have a less stressful educational experience, yet I would love even more if I were given the opportunity to earn it. Giving money to those who cannot help themselves, those born in poverty, and unfortunate situations is a very gracious and humane act of kindness. It gives people hope and a fresh start! There are many others that CAN help themselves, but just don’t take the initiative to do it. These are the ones that expect instead of appreciate things, and the same ones that wait for things to come their way instead of going out and making life better for themselves. For these people, giving back could have much more long-term value by offering mentoring, scholarships, intern- /job opportunities, or a simple act to show that someone cares.
Collectively, we must expand our minds into what “serving others by giving back” entails. We must give back to a person what’s missing in their lives. Someone, somewhere, there is a person in distress in need of someone to talk to. There are third-world countries with families that just want clean water. There are guys on the corner, who just need some words of advice or a push in the right direction. And then there are people like me who just want to be happy, however that may be. I encourage the successful to give back not only out of their pockets, but out of their hearts. Who knows, it just may mean the world to someone else out there!