Volunteering & Life

I have always wanted to be active in community work but the reality of life and cost of living has pushed my volunteer interest to a back seat. I admit I'm not that noble that I can sacrifice my own needs & wants to help others. Nonetheless I still try my best to give some time for volunteer work.

Volunteering is really a reality check for me, to realise that I should be gladful of the things I have and not take them for granted.

I am gladful that I have my parents alive to take care of us till now. There are people who has lost one or both their parents and due to this, fall into great financial difficulties or having to live under the same roof with relatives and some has mentioned how they have been ill-treated by the relatives family.

I am gladful for my siblings who is willing help out whenever I need help and also gladful that I can be of help to them as well. Many times poor families usually have many siblings but they are unable to help much due to their family and their financial instability or some dun even have siblings to help in times of needs.

I am gladful that I am healthy and able to work. This may seem like a very simple thing to everyone but there are people out there who thinks this is a luxury to them. Even if they want to work, there is no job available for them as they are sick, requiring constant medical care and not many employers are willing to see their employees on MC most of the time. Of course, there are some who has made a huge mistake when young, like sniffing glue or taking drugs, which has cause permanent damage to their brain and causing them not able to handle even simple job like cleaning as they are very slow.

I am gladful for having a loving husband who is always there for me whenever I needed and who loves my family as much as I do. I heard of cases where couples separated and have to go through ugly divorce proceedings. There are also cases where daughter-in-law or son-in-law starts to spilt up the family by requesting to live away from the in-laws or requesting money back from their in-laws by selling off their flat, leaving the poor old in-laws to find their own lodging. Sometimes they would also instigate their spouse not to give any allowance to their parents.

I am gladful for a accomodating in-laws who does not impose huge expectations from me. As I am living with my in-laws, it is all the more important to maintain a cordial living environment. Just across my room on the next block, every morning we can hear the mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law scolding each other, wishing each other death, etc. They are so loud that I bet the whole block would have heard them and at times police has to come back to stop them from disturbing the others.

I am gladful for friendly neighbours that is close to the family. Cases like neighbour disputes are the hardest to resolve, where one party is usually very unreasonable, making uncompromising requests and accursation. Usually the only solution is to move away from such neighbours but due to financial means, it is not possible. I have heard of neighbours who would urinate at the door-steps or giving nasty notes.

Finally, I am gladful that I am Singaporean, as there is social assistance provided by the government and a far-sighted parliament who plans ahead to ensure that our economy is able to sustain our living costs, and so forth. Though it may not be the perfect government but in my heart, it is the best that I would want to have. Life is like this, you get some you miss some, it is not possible to please everyone. But at least, I'm CONTENTED.