By Janelle Reserva
There’s still that incomprehensible feeling when I think about the recent typhoon Yolanda. Various friends overseas have asked me if I was alright but I couldn’t really answer them. I don’t know if it is a blessing that I am unaffected by the typhoon while 8
hours away from where I am standing there is a vast wasteland of collapsed houses and mass graves of my own people as those who survived are still salvaging scraps to recover a home.
Despite how numerous the relief goods that we have packed week by week, that I have seen on television and read on social media, there is still insufficiency when I think about their utter loss and how our people will be able to start, and when I think about the children, those poor defenseless children. Living with the news of another brewing typhoon is a nightmare, only this time you are awake. Every move of people helping in relief efforts is all over the Internet. And sometimes it makes you wonder if they really truly want to help or they just want the likes, the follows, the retweets. Opinions flood your feed, flood your mind, you don’t even
need to think anymore. Your mind is not your own. And it is sad that most of those who make these words are the opinionated apathetic. What are we doing other than giving our own opinion?
But if we can’t help enough, if our little help can’t reach them, we can help those who are near us, those who are starving, and those who are homeless and those who ran out of reasons to live that are beside us. I’m not just talking about beggars here.
One of the many things that this calamity has taught us is that we can always help. We can always be givers not by pointing out the blame but by giving well-thought opinions. We can still bless even if we don’t update our Facebook or Twitter statuses. This
calamity has thought us that giving is the right thing and we must learn it. When we give we don’t only bless people’s lives but they also learn how to be a blessing. We can use such suffering to help build lives, to build character by coming together and persevering
together, even in our own small ways.
Helping someone is also educating them because it brings out the best in them by exemplifying that we can give despite also of our own lacks.
The point is, whoever we are, wherever we are, there is always the ability to help and make a positive change in the lives of others and the first step is doing something – doing something because we are responsible, because we love our people and we want to see our nation rise. So go, help.
