Sometimes when I stumble upon a penny on the street I’ll pick it up and as I put it in my pocket I hope it will bring me good luck for what I’m doing that day or what I’m about to do that day and then I also hope that my luck that I have picked up rubs off to the people around me. I’m not sure if thinking about other people is correct when you pick up a penny, but I have never been known to be selfish when it comes to thinking of others or helping out, in fact the best joy out of life is making people laugh and helping out; well for me that is.
For example a friend of the family called me up and asked me if I could watch her little boy for a few days during the week, I was very honored to be asked to help out, being that this woman is bed ridden because she is in a high risk state of possibly losing her 6 month unborn baby. She was really surprised that I said yes and was so happy that I could help out, we hung up and then she called me back to ask how much for babysitting, I told her “nothing, I’m just happy to help”, she refused to hang up until I threw out a number so I did and she thought it was too low, finally we came to an agreement of how much and then hung up. Later that day I met up with my friends and told them about this and one of my guy friends said, “Terese you know that’s really nice of you, if I was you I wouldn’t have said yes” and then when I told my boss the next day she said almost the same thing but added how most people would say no because there are a lot of selfish people in this world, witch over time and even more so now is very true. But at the same time I cant see why you would say no to someone in need?
When I was a child my mother would call me her “helper girl”, I guess I used to help her out around the house and with my baby brother, well as much as a 4-5 yr old could do. Not much has changed, still to this day she calls me that, and even though I roll my eyes when she says it I secretly love it. I remember in 2002 that summer after graduating from high school I decided to read Catcher in the Rye as a free read, and I enjoyed the book but I didn’t fall in love with it right away until Holden talked about how he wanted to catch people and in that very part of the book I cried and I think also I developed a crush on Holden because I thought that was the most unselfish thing to think of. Where have all the unselfish, helpful and trustworthy people gone? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect, there are some things in life that I don’t like to help out on and I have my selfish moments and there are some things you cant trust me on but, I am human after all. I think there is a time and place for everything and I feel if you want to lead a happy life you must try to not be selfish and help out others as much as you can wither it be friends, family or your community. As taken advantage of and unappreciated I have been by others I’m never going to stop doing what makes me happy even though my trust will be jaded a bit, but I know doing the right thing is better then not being caring, helpful, trustworthy and unselfish.
