Embrace the Happiness of Giving
Article by: Di Yin
Born in China as a millennial also means to be part of the single child generation. As an only child, I have always been used to receiving a lot of love and attention, sometimes even spoiled. My mom would even dice up fruits every evening for my homework time all the way up to my high school years.
Once I moved to the United States and began college, I continued to live my adult life over 7,000 miles away from parents; I thought it was going to be a tremendous homesick experience for me. To my surprise, I encountered so many loving friends and families connected to or surrounding the college who included me as a part of their family to many Thanksgiving dinners and family celebrations that I didn’t feel an overwhelming homesickness at all while being alone in a new country. For a while, I was racking my brain trying to figure out ways to pay back these amazing friends for their loving embrace, but I soon started to realize that they, just like my parents, gave their love not intending to seek any payback. All I could do was sincerely thank them and carry the spirit of giving to another person who needed my help.
After graduating from college, I began to establish my life in the US. Around the same time, my younger cousin began her college journey in America. On those holidays and spring breaks when most of her American friends had gone home, I always invited her to my Chicago apartment so that she could feel a sense of family. To this day, I still remember the joy and sense of relief that showed on her face when I picked her up from airports and train stations. When my cousin graduated from college and was moving to a different city 1,300 miles from her school, she didn’t realize the rental van was going to charge an extra few hundred-dollar fee for returning the van to a different location. She called me asking to borrow the money on her way out of town. I didn’t have a split second of hesitation and sent her the funds. Given all of the love and generosity shown to me, giving my cousin the money, was the least I could do. It was a very comforting feeling for me, knowing that I was the one she could rely on when she needed help and that I was in a position to help so that she didn't have to worry in the midst of her very strenuous plan.
What I’ve discovered about giving is that it’s so much more than a good feeling; giving is an act of service, a way of uplifting humanity. Giving requires that we open our heart and be willing to share from a place of vulnerability because we see a need in others that is a reflection of our own self. Giving is the glue that bonds our families together. Giving makes our communities stronger. Giving is a powerful way to support the people and causes we believe in and to assist them in advancing their hopes and dreams.
According to the originators of GivingTuesday, it is “a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world on December 3, 2019 and every day. It was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Over the past seven years, this idea has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity”.
At Be Strong Families, we believe that we can create transformative change in the world by developing and sustaining conversations that nurture the spirit of family, promote well-being, and prevent violence. We are on a global mission to ensure that all families- same-sex parents, parents of children with special needs, foster parents and birth parents, parents in recovery, teen parents as well as traditional parents—are strong, healthy and thriving. Strong, healthy, thriving families result in strong, healthy, thriving communities! We partner with parents and family advocacy centers to develop parents to become leaders in their families, communities and the world. Your support is vital to our continued growth and outreach. Please consider making a donation to Be Strong Families for this upcoming Giving Tuesday. Our goal for this Giving Tuesday and the holiday season is to raise $5,000 to fund our work.
To support Be Strong Families, start your own fundraiser: either on Facebook’s GivingTuesday page and select “Be Strong Families” as your non-profit organization; or simply go to our Be Strong Families Facebook page to start your own fundraiser and share!
To make it even more quick and easy, click and share our Donate portal!
Watch a quick instruction video or contact di@bestrongfamilies.net for any questions.
Thank you and happy holidays!
