I missed the feeling of doing good deeds, even as small as giving a piece of bread to a homeless along my way to class.
If you asked me what I think is my best charity experience I would say Cambodia Project that I joined years back. That experience (sometimes pain) made me a better person that I was before. I learnt a lot about the art of giving rather than receiving. Of how an easily overlooked deed to you could be someone's else greatest help received. There, in Cambodia, I learnt on how to be a selfless person when I need to, to figure out my priorities. Needs before wants, just like what my dad always tell me. It is funny though of how it takes me more than 10 years to finally understand the meaning of my dad's word, of how the things you want may not be as important as the things you need. Sure enough, to understand what he said was easy, but to really know it by heart is another thing.
I still remember since I was a little kid, my dad would always bring me to supermarket (it ends with ...din) to buy groceries for the week. I don't know why, but I would always be the one who tagged along. Imagine the aisle full of jajan, me like any other kids, would beg him to buy me random things such as chocolates that comes with toys inside it etc etc. His answer would be simple (and strict) "Beli apa yang perlu, bukan apa yang awak nak" and most of the times, I would either put it back down or beg my life out so he would buy me it. And of course, with this given cutiepie face, he would buy it for me in the end (teehee). As time passed by, he watched me grow older as I got to see him less and less due to the boarding school i attended. Growing up, I began to notice how hard he tried to provide his family a comfortable life regardless of himself sometimes. I blame myself for not being the best daughter yet (I will someday InshaAllah, I'm still working on it).
He would always try to make us to do good to others. We did things, thanks to my dad, that would help others in a way. Once, we have a playground right up the streets of our house which somehow at one point became the place for youngsters to get drunk. They would leave beer bottles, even broken glass bottles, on the ground which was supposed to be the place where children would play. My dad, being the charity master like he always is, decided that our family should help. After school, in my school uniform, my sisters and I waited for my dad to get back home from work and we begin to pick up the broken glasses one by one. It was tiring of course but my dad would keep on praising us every time we managed to locate a hidden piece of the glass and told us 'one feet is now safe from bleeding'. It was simple and went unnoticed by others. Till this day, I still feel happy as I see kids running around the playground, where once i helped making it safe again.
And few months after that, he took this doing-good-to-others thing up a notch. We began visiting orphanages and gives out school supplies and food. The day itself was amazing but the amount of work behind it was unthinkable. My sisters and I had to fill up these small plastic pouches with candies and chocolates, of each one kind has its own designated amount ( 1 lollipop, 3 mentos, 2 coki-coki) *yes babah, nina still ingat. I hated doing that much work that time, but when we got back from the orphanage, I was beyond excited to do it again. That feeling I felt by giving was amazing.
I believed that it was because of my dad, how he made us do things we initially refused that made me see things in different way. And through series of charity, I fell in love in rising by helping others.
If you asked me what I think is my best charity experience I would say Cambodia Project that I joined years back. That experience (sometimes pain) made me a better person that I was before. I learnt a lot about the art of giving rather than receiving. Of how an easily overlooked deed to you could be someone's else greatest help received. There, in Cambodia, I learnt on how to be a selfless person when I need to, to figure out my priorities. Needs before wants, just like what my dad always tell me. It is funny though of how it takes me more than 10 years to finally understand the meaning of my dad's word, of how the things you want may not be as important as the things you need. Sure enough, to understand what he said was easy, but to really know it by heart is another thing.
I still remember since I was a little kid, my dad would always bring me to supermarket (it ends with ...din) to buy groceries for the week. I don't know why, but I would always be the one who tagged along. Imagine the aisle full of jajan, me like any other kids, would beg him to buy me random things such as chocolates that comes with toys inside it etc etc. His answer would be simple (and strict) "Beli apa yang perlu, bukan apa yang awak nak" and most of the times, I would either put it back down or beg my life out so he would buy me it. And of course, with this given cutiepie face, he would buy it for me in the end (teehee). As time passed by, he watched me grow older as I got to see him less and less due to the boarding school i attended. Growing up, I began to notice how hard he tried to provide his family a comfortable life regardless of himself sometimes. I blame myself for not being the best daughter yet (I will someday InshaAllah, I'm still working on it).
He would always try to make us to do good to others. We did things, thanks to my dad, that would help others in a way. Once, we have a playground right up the streets of our house which somehow at one point became the place for youngsters to get drunk. They would leave beer bottles, even broken glass bottles, on the ground which was supposed to be the place where children would play. My dad, being the charity master like he always is, decided that our family should help. After school, in my school uniform, my sisters and I waited for my dad to get back home from work and we begin to pick up the broken glasses one by one. It was tiring of course but my dad would keep on praising us every time we managed to locate a hidden piece of the glass and told us 'one feet is now safe from bleeding'. It was simple and went unnoticed by others. Till this day, I still feel happy as I see kids running around the playground, where once i helped making it safe again.
And few months after that, he took this doing-good-to-others thing up a notch. We began visiting orphanages and gives out school supplies and food. The day itself was amazing but the amount of work behind it was unthinkable. My sisters and I had to fill up these small plastic pouches with candies and chocolates, of each one kind has its own designated amount ( 1 lollipop, 3 mentos, 2 coki-coki) *yes babah, nina still ingat. I hated doing that much work that time, but when we got back from the orphanage, I was beyond excited to do it again. That feeling I felt by giving was amazing.
I believed that it was because of my dad, how he made us do things we initially refused that made me see things in different way. And through series of charity, I fell in love in rising by helping others.
