The Spirit of Giving

Every year at Kennedy our student government does a series of activities to help those in need. These activities consist of a canned food drive and collecting coats and warm clothing also this Christmas we are giving presents to needy families. Before this year I had not taken part in donating items because of two reasons. One, it wasn’t as publicized as much as it should have been throughout the school in my first two years at Kennedy. Two, there was no sense of urgency and I placed the idea towards the end of my long to do list. This year I was humbled to realize that I was not as “good” as I had thought of myself. I was put in my place when my teacher offered extra credit for every can that was brought in and I caught myself taking extra measures not to forget. I realized that for me there wasn’t enough incentive before when it was just doing something good, but now that there was an immediate effect to help raise my grade. A little later on the same teacher offered more extra credit for buying gifts for a family that our class adopted. Again I took extra measures not to forget and wrote down what I was to bring in for the family to receive the boost in my grade. I knew I was doing something good, but I wasn’t pleased with myself or the way I went about it. I should have put giving at the top of my priority list and the extra credit should just be a perk instead of giving because there is an extra incentive added to the mixture.

I was online the other day and, being around Christmas, found this interesting topic of what Santa’s are doing and have been doing for some time now. It inspired to do something good and maybe one day, if things turn out where I have been blessed with that kind of money then I might become a secret Santa. More than that it opened my eyes to what the spirit of giving really is and how I’ve been going about giving in the wrong way. I should be giving with or without incentive because I know that I have it better than a lot of people and since I have been blessed now I will bless others.