5 Things I Learned from Volunteering

I've been fortunate enough to teach in South Africa, build a home in Haiti, and prepare meals for hungry kids in Nepal.   

The people I met from all my travels became a compass steering me towards a life of purpose. 

In the process, I redefined what was important to me and tried to live in accordance with my core values.  

Along the way I discovered five things that have served me to this day:

• There will always be someone in the world worse off then you.
• Where ever you go there will always be people who need help. 
• Your quality of service to others informs the quality of your life.
• The human condition is the universal link that binds us together.  
• The only true and indispensable currency is love.  

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   What You Can Do
    
    Find ways you can be of service to someone else. Remember, it doesn't have to be on a grand scale. 

Perhaps you can tutor for an hour a week, volunteer at a soup kitchen, or teach someone a skill that you already possess.

    When we lift each other up attainment of our goals become much more about impact rather than self-importance. Service to others gives integrity to our ambition.

    It's about BECOMING more rather than simply gaining more.

Lessons from a Nepali Tour Guide

Years ago I had the great fortune of visiting Nepal. I spent several weeks volunteering for 9 amazing kids at an orphanage in a city called Chitwan, about 100 miles southwest of Kathmandu. It wasn't uncommon for the thermometer to hit 110 degrees or to see elephants casually walking down the street. It was like no place I'd ever seen.

The volunteers were also given downtime. When I wasn't helping kids with homework or preparing meals I'd take a stroll through the National Park, which was just a few hundred yards away.

One afternoon, as I sat looking out onto the water a gentlemen asked where I was from. We started talking and before long were waxing philosophy about life and what it means to be happy.

"Be happy your life now," he said repeatedly in his thick accent. His words were poignant but it took years for me to really appreciate what his simple phrase meant.

Looking back, I'm convinced he was trying to tell me the search for enlightenment is a futile one. That all we need to do is open our eyes. What we're looking for is already before us. He was encouraging me to be happy -- unreasonably so without searching for a reason. To simply be joyful and allow my contentment to be greater than my desires. 

I'm still working on it but his simple words always have a way of keeping me in check.

A Strange Thing Happened...

A few years after drama school I began to feel a sense of emptiness. I questioned my work as an actor, even its meaning - two events that had never occurred. Telling stories was all I cared to do since I was a little boy. What did it all mean? I wondered. Who was this all for? Why should the world care? 

Like many young actors, I was idealistic and thought I could change the world with a monologue, or a compelling scene. It was why I wanted to be an actor in the first place; to make some small dent in society by influencing or changing the way one thought.

As I seemed to drift further and further away from this disposition, I found myself willing myself to fall back in love with acting. It sounds strange, but I even resented myself for not wanting to do it. After all, I'd worked so hard to get through a conservatory and made sacrifices to give this dream a real go.

In time, I discovered this hollowness was a result of focusing too much on myself. It was all about me. I was tired of hearing my own voice.

Then I decided to volunteer in my community. First, as a mentor at a high school in Queens. Soon after, I was giving resume workshops at Coalition for the Homeless, making beds at a shelter, and delivering speeches on public speaking. A few years later I was doing similar work in South Africa, Nepal, and Haiti.

When I returned I felt rejuvenated. Service to others had also given me perspective on the bigger picture. I no longer lived and died on each audition. And the funny thing is, I actually became a better actor. Go figure.