First Donation
Today I started recurring donations, deducting a part of my paycheck. The feeling of donating is one of the best things I've felt in a long time.
Even though I come from an affluent family, I am always short on cash. I refuse to let my parents pay for my desires and ambitions, which is really difficult: but I'll do what I can. During school and swim season, I work as a lifeguard, often during odd hours, sometimes taking a break during my shift to swim my event.
codeabode has also been expanding; although the team shrunk like intended, I've shifted my focus onto my two paying customers and gave the team some autonomy over the rest. It took almost 2 months for results to show by shifting team dynamics at aquarc, but if I don't start now, when will I?
Currently I'm donating to Signal and the Trenton Soup Kitchen, two of my favorite nonprofits. I use Signal for day to day communication between my friends and both organizations, which isn't necessary but at least demonstrates my respect for the platform.
As for the Trenton Soup Kitchen, I've always wanted to volunteer there and help out. I started reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in America by Matthew Desmond recently, and I want to deepen my understanding of poverty and mitigate it. In fact, I didn't think poverty in America was a real problem until a couple of months ago.
It will be very hard for me to keep up with my payments, but I want to give back to the organizations that shaped who I am today. Signal is a symbol of the FOSS-lover inside me who wants to retreat to a farm in Idaho and keep my data all to myself. Now that I understand this vision isn't possible in the long term, I still stick to Signal because that is, and it prevents people from having unnecessary data on me. And as for the Trenton Soup Kitchen, I don't think anyone deserves to feel hungry for an extended period of time.
Although my donations amount to a meager $10/month, it definitely is a start. I want to give more to the community in the long run: not only in the form of money, but time and effort as well. That, I believe, is the real test of devotion.
Tags: reflection