2 Years of Posts, Part 3: Serving Oneself While Serving Others

You really have to choose your own path for service.

This is the third installment of my reflection of two years of posts, check out my first reflection HERE and the second one HERE.

Sometimes Service Means Sleeping In, posted October 30th 2011

Service, in any context, is always so 'other' focused, that to drop this focus for a moment can feel selfish and hypocritical, but service, to distinguish itself from slavery or employment, must contain personal joy and commitment in it.  Otherwise, it would be more akin to self-indentured servitude.  Ideally the results of my service will be owned by my community, but the service itself, well that's mine and, when it comes down to the final moments, it is controlled by me.  And if I see that a change needs to take place in it to make me feel happier, healthier, or more productive, then that is a choice I have the privilege to make.

During my two years of Peace Corps Service, I've had two big 'ah-ha'  moments regarding the nature of this 2 year service commitment.  The first one, lucky for me, was during Pre Service Training, when a volunteer shared her rule that she would only work as much as her community member were was willing to.

Her perspective was that we are here to supplement what can be done, and if we do something by ourselves, without any community member involvement, there would be no lasting benefit.  There must be effort from participating community members, whether through learning or executing other aspects of the project, in every project

This was a blessing to hear early on in service and it is this that really focused me on doing projects that had a sustainable component to it rather than a simple one-off event.  My second 'ah-ha' moment is the other side of the first lesson's coin when I realized, on a cold October morning, that the idea of 'my service' was actually speaking to an ownership of my entire experience here.

More than just choosing what I was interested in and avoiding blindly doing what others told me to do, 'my service' meant that I was the ultimate authority on what needed to be done.  'My service' was my own and controlled and grown and fed by me, and it would be me who determined what was right or necessary or most important each day of my service.  

It wasn't 'bad service' to take an extra day off on the last day of an illness, nor was it 'bad service' to decline a guesting invitation in favor of a skype date with America.  At various times over these two years these two decisions were made and it would have benefited no one; not me, not my friends, not my community, if I had guilted myself into choosing another route.

This perspective has also helped me understand volunteerism in a different way.  Often volunteerism conjures up settings of disaster areas, refugee camps, or soup kitchens.  These are areas where service is needing and thankfully there are many awesome people doing many amazing things here.

But for me personally, well, I don't get excited about that form of service.  I want to continue volunteering once I am settled in America again, but I want to volunteer in settings like art museums, libraries, and radio stations.  Service is also needed here and it is here where I know I will be most satisfied by 'my service' and thus do my best work.