Yawn... just woke up after one long, sleepless night up improving the mobile volunteering app, then one straight, tiring day volunteering at Highpoint Community Services.
It's surprisingly refreshing to go down to the ground and get our knees dirty in helping for a good cause! I had an interesting 'job rotation' as I carried sacks of rice with Meesala (an Indian MBA getting a job here), packed food with VL Jiaqi for homes of the elderly, being sent on a 'learning excursion' delivery route in a van with Ho Fai and Uncle Richard, and finally learning about high fashion while arranging old clothes with Anne. Along the way, I had a fun break drinking some weird ass drink some company donated crates of (for good reason i'm sure...) with Uncle Bernard, a 60 or 70-ish teacher who shared a couple of years of his life story and almost began proselytizing to me before i escaped =p.
I couldn't help smiling when I was doing some of the menial labour... guess I have a couple of bolts loose somewhere haha. I just felt a 'feel-good' sensation - and i guess it's the thing that keeps me going thru my past leadership experiences as well. Working for the sake of others cleanses the soul... it validates our common existence in this world of ours and makes you feel like you've gotten just a little closer to all the mass of human beings out there trying to eke out a meager living. It makes you feel alive - yes, for only when you are truly alive, do you think and care for others, do you share your love for the world. Otherwise, what differentiates you from a moving object, a machine?
It was invigorating, too, to get to share some of my thoughts and experiences with a common soul Ho Fai, whom I shared an hour or so on the delivery route! We really poured our hearts out, talking about our dreams and aspirations, our life stories that built us up. Amazing how a great connection just sparks like that, simply by being open to making new friends.
Ah well... I almost forgot my original purpose, to get more feedback for the mobile app! Still thinking about how to make it more engaging, more attractive towards users. How should we go about making people volunteer more? What makes people volunteer, and what makes them not volunteer? Will they do it if it's fun? If it's with friends? If they got recognition or rewards?
These are some of the questions i have been throwing around recently, to understand the real problem i'm trying to solve. It's not about thinking of what the app can do, but rather what people need or want. And there's no simple answer to this, so all i can do is to keep digging and digging, probing people, asking questions.
But truly, thanks to this project, I have gotten to thinking and learning a lot in more than one way. I like the new experiences i've been getting recently too. Even though there is much that doesn't excite me anymore, there is still a great part of the unexplored world out there for me to venture into.
After all, all we want is a reason to live.
mehhhh not bad
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