March 2, 2011
It has been over a year since I joined the Peace Corps. I am still being asked over and over again the same question, “Why did you join the Peace Corps?” The question came from surprisingly a variety of individuals; friends back home, strangers from internet, my host family, Azerbaijani and even my Peace Corps friends. I figure this question most likely will be asked again when I return to the United States, when I am going through a job interview, when I am “drunk” in the bar having a casual conversation with strangers, or when I travel back to Hong Kong and am interrogated by relatives, therefore, I should really prepare and come up with a short and sweet (according to RPCV, usually people lose their interest about PC story after 5 minutes) but convincing reason.
I contemplate the answer for quite sometimes now, instead of answering the question; perhaps I should begin my anwser with a series of question. At one point of our life, we need to look into our heart and ask ourselves:
Is our own happiness enough to justify our living? Can we truly be happy when others suffer? Is it moral to ignore the needs of helping others? Can we continue to pretend there is nothing wrong to be selfish?
It is high time to “Giving it back!”
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