Everyone always says that money can’t buy happiness, and I completely agree with it. When you have money all you want is more money, more money so that you can spend it on other things for yourself, a new pair of shoes, food, makeup, or coffee. I think we can all agree money makes us selfish because we put so much hard work into getting it’s so hard to give out for free. We start off young and we begin getting allowances so we can go to the corner store and chocolate, and as the years go by we get older and we get our first job and then we have our own money where half of our paycheck if not most goes to personal expenses.
Recently I was driving and I was at an intersection which was a very known intersection to have panhandlers, and instead of seeing homeless asking for money I noticed a sign that said “It’s okay to say No to Panhandlers” and at first I felt a sort of relief because we all try to avoid seeing a panhandler without feeling the need to reach into our wallet for a few bucks to give them but at the same time I was thinking, when was the last time that I donated my time to help out my community?
I work at Under Armour, and one thing our company does is Givebacks. This is something new to me, working for a company that makes sure every month our community is looked out for, to be global citizens. Under Armour’s founder, Kevin Plank is huge on giving back to the world, and he encourages his stores to do the same, and this Labor day weekend we did just that. We took our Sunday night off and came together to make Peanut Butter Sandwiches to be distributed to the homeless for Labor Day, September 5th. It was fun and it felt amazing to help out in such a good way because I didn’t need money I just needed time to set aside to help.
The thing is, yes money makes us selfish because sometimes we are using it the wrong ways. A new shade of lipstick won’t make you happy, it’s only going to make you wish you could buy a darker shade when you walk out the store. It’s giving back that makes us happy, because seeing someone else happy, will make us feel good about ourselves.
Everyone gets busy, one of the reasons I haven't had time to take a good look at the community I live in to see that there is so much I would love to help out with, but simply donating an hour of my time, volunteering or giving back every now and then, it just makes anyone feel like they spent their time in an unforgettable way.
It's ok to say No to panhandlers every once in a while, but don't forget about them. Say yes to donating, and to be a global citizen in your community. Go local and go global, just go outside and give back.
