The Joys of Volunteering

My parents have volunteered all their lives and served as fantastic role models for me. As children, we were constantly encouraged to participate in community volunteering opportunities with our parents. I will never forget my birthdays growing up because many of them were spent serving food to the poor and underprivileged or to sadhus and sanyasis (holy men). In hindsight, those days were special not only because they were my birthdays but because serving others reminded me of how privileged I was and made me feel grateful about all that I was given.