I love to travel and I love service.

I love exploring new places and meeting new faces.

Helping myself by helping others sounds selfish, but wait, it isn't like that.

I serve because I see the need.

I serve because I see how people ignore the need.

I see how people cower away when passing a homeless Veteran begging for work.

I see how people are about "saving the world" on Facebook and Twitter, but when the time actually comes to do something about it, Netflix becomes too important.

I see those precious kids out on the street, shivering because they have outgrown their coat three sizes, but still, it is all they have.

I saw a boy walk through the halls of my brother's middle school, his shoes barely held together at the sole, crushing mine.

"I have 35 pairs of shoes and this boy barely has one."

I am ashamed.

I am ashamed because I do see the need, but I can't do enough to help.

My empathy will only stretch so far because I can only help so many people.

Do you see it?

Do you see my heart breaking because I can't help everybody who needs it?

Do you see the excitement that burns across my face when someone's life has been made better by service?

When I see that a homeless Veteran finally has a job after being shot at across foreign lines, when people actually do come together and save part of the world, when a successful coat drive warms children's bodies and hearts, when a shoe drive collects enough souls to give back more than enough soles. I serve because I see the need.

Servant leadership has always been a huge part of my life. Starting when I was young, I was always volunteering and serving with my parents and grandparents. Service is important to me because the look on the people's faces who we have helped or the gripping hugs that we get at the end of our work is all that I need to let me know that this person is now going to have a better life because of selfless service.

Service is more than just collecting or donating, although those are great forms of service. Having just completed a service leadership camp as a counselor, I was able to help teach high-schoolers the ways in which service can help those who need it. This ranges from behind-the-scenes administrative duties to being out in a farm field pulling weeds or picking crops up.

I define service as being anything that is done to help better someone else's life. It's simple but meaningful. I will always hold servant leadership near and dear to my heart and I can only hope that I can bring others to service while doing so.