By Danielle Sheally

Dec. 26th, the most unhappy day in the world.

During any big holiday, everybody help each other and it seems like all the people in the world turn into one big family.  We ask about your family, ask how we are doing in school, etc.  We take extra time out of our schedules to help the homeless, feed the hungry, and collect money for the sick. Maybe because we feel like if we do a couple good deeds during the holidays that we are good for the rest of the year?

If we’re being honest with ourselves no one volunteers as much as they should. I think volunteering isn’t really part of our nature so when the holidays come around we automatically think “Oh my gosh have I given enough of my spare time.” When that answer is no, we automatically go into the state of thinking that we need to volunteer 50 billion hours in one day. Personally, I believe volunteering is built on the basis of when we feel it in our heart, do it. Don’t do it just because a holiday rolled around.

Volunteering truly is fun. When we give a helping hand you get to see the gratitude spread across the faces of the people we’re helping. They could be totally down in the dumps but, when we help them it could turn their day sunny side up. Lending a hand doesn’t have to be manual, it can be as easy as just spending some time with an elderly person talking or picking a handful of trash so the custodians don’t have to clean so much.

I’m passionate about this because what if we actually did pay it forward. Imagine how much kinder people would be. Instead of being envious of others we could actually be happy for them when they achieve their goals. What if schools around the country had a National Volunteering Day and we cleaned the school in teams. We may miss a day of academics, but imagine the lessons of paying it forward we would learn.

What are you going to do when your hand is needed?