Day 25 Freedom to Serve

One of the first articles I read in a Chinese newspaper described the university admissions tests that Chinese students take in their last year of high school. The article gave a good idea of how important these tests are: Commercial airline flights are rerouted to avoid the schools and cars are not allowed to honk within a certain radius around the testing buildings (a significant challenge here) in an effort to minimize distractions to the test-takers. The students’ admission to universities depends solely on their performance on these lengthy tests in relation to other students, a harsh demonstration of how competitive education is here. Unfortunately, education is far from the only competitive field in China; with over 1.32 billion people there are many privileges that simply cannot be available to all citizens. The sad result of this reality is that each citizen and family is very careful to spend their time and effort on bettering their own chances of success and has little time to devote to helping others.

In comparison, because of the many opportunities afforded to us as Americans, we have the ability and privilege to serve others. Service has played a critical role in my life over the past three years in particular, both as a participant and recipient, and has benefited me in ways I would have never thought possible, but I’ve never thought of these blessings from service as an indirect result of living in a nation with so many opportunities. The people I have encountered in China are certainly not forbidden to give but the other required uses of their time often eliminate the possibility and thus they are unable to realize the blessings from helping others. From my observations here, contributing only to your own success is seen by the Chinese people as their best and only way to survive but I see this as the most significant restraint on their success as a nation, as well as the driving force behind America’s own success. We are so blessed to live in a country that allows us the free time and resources to serve others, as these are privileges not all nations have.