Service. A word that often gets thrown around a lot when talking about things one can do for either their community or country or world as a whole. However, is it a choice we have? Meaning, do we have the choice to serve or is it rather an obligation to us all as humans that we often just choose to ignore? Unfortunately, for those of us who don't want to hear it, it is in fact an obligation and a need rather than a choice. "Why?", you might ask. Allow me to elaborate.

1. Everyone needs help

I know this is not the popular thing to admit in today's culture of "do it yourself, by yourself", but let us not hide behind a cloud of false imagery. We all need help. It may not be right now, but at some point in all of our lives, we all could use a hand. This hand does not have to aid in anything big, it may simply be to help move furniture or babysit someone's children for them, but help is needed nonetheless. Therefore, if we do not help others with there problems, no matter how small, then why are we entitled to think that we should deserve help with our problems? Come on people, we're smarter than this. Helping others around us should not be solely for the selfish reason of securing help for ourselves in the future, but that thought is still valid. If we do not help our brothers and sisters around us, then we are in no better a place to come to them and ask for help when we need it.

2. If you're religious, its kind of a big deal

Though my religious expertise is basically only in Christianity, it is no secret that in all of the world's major religions that aiding one's neighbor is a large portion of a person's responsibility. In Christianity, for example, the messiah Jesus Christ gives this instruction in about as obvious an example as one can give. He commands his followers to give selflessly, telling them that if a Roman solider told them to carry his things one mile, that they should carry it two. This religious conviction behind service is not for everyone, because not everyone prescribes to a religious belief, but for those of us that do then it is our job to go out and do work. By sitting at home and doing nothing, we are falling short of one of our biggest commandments.

3. We talk the talk

We like to talk. Its natural to want to talk and enjoy doing it for that matter, but when there is no walking done after the talking, then what good is the talk? Service is a very easy thing to discuss at the dinner table or in the living room, about what should or needs to be done, but going out and doing them is what is needed. Not the pointless discussion. If everyone did all the service work that they talked about wanting to do, our world might not be that bad. I know this because I do it too. Many a time have I talked about a need within my community or the nation as a whole, but never gone and pursued that to which I am speaking. No one is perfect, but that doesn't mean we have to sit home and accept that fact.

4. Some of us have never worried about a thing

Some of us have been blessed to never have to worry about what we are going to eat for dinner, whether or not the water is going to be on, or where the money for bills is going to come from. Because of this, we are privileged and blessed. Shouldn't we try our hardest to make sure that others can share in this joy? It is our job to not become comfortable in our blissful paradise of material goods and instead go forth into the starving world to give food to the hungry, blankets to the cold, or shelter to those who have none. Some of us have never worried about any of these and therefore we should try our hardest to spread that blessing to those who have not been as lucky.

I go to a school in a less than stellar neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama. There is a fear shared by some students here about "turning right" off of campus. Due to this fear, we limit ourselves and our school's potential in helping out a community that desperately needs it. I know we are not alone in this. Some may be out of school and have always felt guilty for not giving money to that man on the corner or not buying food for the starving woman sitting in the parking lot. This doesn't have to be our entire life. We can change. We can make a difference. Not for the benefit of ourselves, but for the lives of those around us who struggle, ache, and beg. Let us not talk about the change, but instead may we be the change.