Community Starts at Home

Hey girl hey. And boy.

My mom and I were talking about giving back to the community yesterday and it went something like this.

Me: My old teacher was telling me about the number of refugees that are filling the school and the recent ones that don’t know how to read and write. She wants to accommodate for everyone but it’s super hard teaching now that there are people with different levels of ability.

Mom: Ah, the new Syrians that escaped the borders. It’s definitely been tough for them.

Me: Yeah, I want to help. But I have school to attend and it’s hard tutoring because it’s a far drive. Maybe I can start with my own neighbourhood. And just volunteer and tutor math and English in the summer. A lot of the refugee parents came here to give their kids an education too but it’s hard with the language barrier and all the learning they missed out on. I can start helping this summer!

Mom: Wow look how fast you are helping people outside. Like a pumpkin’s plant. What about your own family? I need to improve my English, I need help with chores, and your siblings need to improve their reading.

 

carrots grow deeper into the ground and build their foundations upwards 

And oh. my. God. THAT got me thinking. I felt such a huge responsibility to help the local community but while being blinded by all these ambitions, I forgot that the very first people you need to aid are your own family. Community starts here. In your own home and in your own family. I feel like I always tell myself that I’m not going to be the kind of child that abandons her parents when they get old because I’m too “busy” but just the way I went about this situation without taking my family into account got me thinking about how much we as youth want to take on huge roles and create projects.

But what about the projects we make within our own families?

How much time do we actually make for them?

Just think about it. How often do you check on them? How often do you check on your siblings? How are they doing at school? We got so well at co-existing with one another but do we fulfil each other’s needs well enough?

And I think that’s the day it clicked in me that community starts as small as within your own family members. If everyone started checking up on the ones they love and making sure they make change within their homes, then we can seriously change so many people on a wider scale.

I also learned that I will not truly achieve change if I don’t have an effect on my own family. I’ve been surrounded by these people, that I didn’t choose, for a reason and I discovered that it’s extremely important to make sure the people around you get the help they need from you. And if everybody looked out for the people around them, and within their own homes, the world will be a much better place.

This doesn’t mean that I won’t be helping other people. It just means that I want to always make sure my family comes first and make the ratio for helping my family never less than the time I put outside. I was recently having a conversation with Gracie about the constant worry we have to impact the world and where we should start. And for me, I finally found the answer. It starts here. Right now.

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Anddd that’s all for today.

This post was all over the place but I had to go grandma mode real quick. I’ve been so busy this past week with exams, today I spent the morning at my sister’s field trip and the evening at a friend’s birthday party, and tomorrow I’ll be going to an amusement park for the whole day (inshallah). So much is going on but I hope to be back next week with more content, especially that school is finally out! Whoop whoop!

What is your sense of community?

How well is the community at home doing? (on a scale of 1-10, I’m rating myself a 3 for the lack of help I give my mom and siblings but I hope to improve that!)

What’s your favourite amusement park?

I’ll see you in my next post.

Bayyy. 💞