My service, which involves working with and entertaining kids in a daycare centre, is something that I’ve been a part of for quite a while now. While we haven’t met the kids yet, due to COVID protocol and restrictions, we have planned extensively for our eventual first meeting, whether that’d be online or in person. Although I don’t often consider the ethics of the things I do everyday, in hindsight, it is possible to think that this service is “meaningless” compared to what I could be doing. This idea of measuring actions for how morally good they are isn’t completely unfounded. Of course, helping starving families or fighting for the equality underprivileged citizens are always going to be “better” than opening the door for someone or in my case, entertaining children. My actions and my service isn’t anything completely groundbreaking or deserving of praise, but I find that doing a small good deed is always worth doing, because a) it is a good habit and b) even if it’s just for a day, or an hour, you are making someone’s day better. And when you think of the service like that, is is undoubtable that it is the morally good thing to do.

As I neared the performing date for Kahaani, I have decided to use this reflection to look back at all the challenges throughout my activity experience. Not only was this a completely foreign experience to me, but it was one that came with many challenges. One such challenge was the sheer difficulty of collaborating with the multiple people in our dance group. I had to be coordinated with all the other people in my dance, and I would often mess up or forget my next move mid-dance. And when I did mess up, I would get anxious that I might make that same mistake in the final performance, which made the experience even more challenging. Furthermore, we faced several issues with the choreography, stage positioning, and transitions, that at one point we were changing the dance so much we just agreed to stop overcomplicating the dance, and just stick with whatever we’ve got. Luckily, what helped was realising that the others were just as nervous as I was.

This month, I finally got to do some hands-on work with my service, PPIS. Before this month, I will admit, I was almost completely unenthusiastic for my service. I have seen a couple of my fellow service members quit, and stop attending the service altogether. The energy up until this point was also quite low in the service room, as we were spending lots of our time together planning and not doing. Despite service feeling like a chore, I still went nonetheless, afraid that if I missed enough sessions, I would get cut from the service. When we were finally able to interact with the kids online, I cynically assumed, just like us, they would be apathetic towards our session together. Luckily, I was very wrong. When we began with a song and dance, the kids were full of energy and were extremely responsive. I was even more surprised to learn that the kids were also paying full attention to the book reading we had planned for them, as they were able to answer all the questions we had prepared for them afterwards. By the end of the session, I was left with a feeling of accomplishment that I previously never had in this service. I had really felt that my commitment, of attending every single service session, was worth it, and that I had created a meaningful experience for myself and the kids. It also made me much more appreciate the hard work of our service chairs, as well as the service department altogether, for meticulously arranging and planning our virtual meet-up. I had, quite honestly, felt that I was getting the easier job to do, as all I had to do was entertain the kids for 30 minutes.

With that being said, I owe part of my feelings of success to my fellow service members, especially one of my close friends I attend the service with. I feel that our unique mix of skills and valuable ideas contributed to a greater experience for both us and the kids. When our group was desperate for activities to do during the service, there was always someone that came up with an idea. And when the kids looked unresponsive or uninvolved, I would contribute by attempting to raise their energy with words of encouragement or affirmation.