A Lesson from the Doctor: Why We Volunteer

The Doctor from Doctor Who taught me that humans are hopeful. That's what we are. We endure economic crises, wars, pandemics, but we emerge victorious. And if we don't emerge victorious, we pull ourselves together and clean up the debris, and force ourselves to turn around and pick up right where we left off.

Of course, when I say "we", I automatically exclude myself and most of the people I know.

My friends and I, as teenagers of the 21st century in East Coast suburbs, know little of hardship. We have arguments and drama and uprooting and occasionally, deaths of loved ones. But we do not know what it's like to fight for our lives, fight oppression and disease.

It makes us feel useless. It certainly makes me feel useless. The fact that I have the luxury to sit here and complain about feeling useless in front of my fancy computer next to my fancy camera and all my fancy test prep material makes me feel no more than useless and selfish. So I volunteer. Where I volunteer doesn't matter. It's at charity runs, at local parks, at educational events. It's not ending world hunger, but it's something.

Community service hours are important to high schoolers. Logging them displays "character," that we go out and give our time and (labor) services. I myself have already volunteered over 50 hours this year alone. While it may not seem like much from an adult working perspective, keep in mind that us students also have school and homework and extracurriculars.

But all of that is beside the point.

We volunteer because it gives our coordinators hope in the coming generation. it tells them that we are not all pigs and slobs, lazy bums who do nothing but text and drive, deface buildings, and waste money.

We volunteer because it gives our receivers hope. Often, teens spend weekends at food banks or shelters. And once in a while, we leave an impact.

But we also volunteer because we are selfish. We volunteer because it gives us, as teenagers, hope in ourselves and the world around us. Hours are good for college applications. It gives us hope to our dream schools and jobs. Running around following orders is, well, exercise. It gives us hope that we stay fit, though we rarely think about this one. Most of all, though, volunteering reassures us that we are not useless. That while we have been blessed with the world in our hands, we can also make a change in that same world. That by getting up and getting involved, we will one day involve ourselves in the discovery of the cure to cancer, to AIDS, to global peace.