Volunteering in my own little way
I would say what I give back to my community as service is a very funny one, and most of you might not agree with it, but honestly, it is; I don't throw away trash anywhere other than the bin when I'm outside my home, and I can boldly say I do that every time. I developed this habit many years back, and I decided to stick to it. The funny thing is, to date, I don't know why; maybe it was because I experienced the Keep Against Indiscipline (K.I.A.) during the regime of Ahmed Tinubu as the governor of Lagos State, or was it the time of Governor Fashola or Governor Ambode? Keeping Lagos clean is a slogan and consistency showing an advert on TV, or those thrash to throw on the road can cause damage to the draining system or just my home training.
Whenever I'm outside my home and I get a pet drink or something to eat or, let me just say, anything, after I'm done with the important stuff, I try as much as possible not to just throw trash anywhere until I find a trash can where I can dump refuse, and that doesn't mean the government trash can alone; I dump it in a private trash can too, which sometimes the owners might not take lightly.
There was one time I got the insult of my life for putting trash in a compound's bin, but this is Lagos, where we have fewer understanding people. The insult didn't move me a bit and didn't stop me from still dumping trash in people's bins if I couldn't find a public one. In some cases, I have to take my trash home just because I couldn't find a trash can anywhere, or maybe I boarded a straight bus to my house. Gone are those days when public transport always had a wastebasket stationed somewhere in the bus; even the government transport doesn't have this anymore, and my friends have laughed at me for doing this, even my family, but whatever they say won't change me.
I can say this attitude has made me not 100% a clean person but just not the type of person you get to their home and see nylons or paper littering everywhere, and it helps me not to join this habit of spitting bone inside your house when eating, you know, this tiny fish bone that you can pick with your hand when it's on your tongue, and most people spit it out forgetting they are at home because it has become a habit for them, which is pretty bad.
Another thing I do that is a great help to the community is cutting the carton of anything I buy into pieces, and even if most people don't agree with it, this can help us reduce fake products in our community. They don't put it on the carton again, I think, but back in those days when you bought Close-Up toothpaste, it was always written on the carton, but most of us would neglect this. If there is a way to identify fake currency by looking at it, then you should be able to tell a fake product by looking at the carton, but how can we stop them from using the real carton to pack fake products if we don't cut it to pieces that are beyond repair?
These are the little community services I render, which might not seem like much, but I'm trying to keep my community clean and safe, which is very important. In my opinion, I don't think you have to do something big before you give back to the community because even the littlest thing matters too.
I hope you had fun reading this and also learned a thing or two from me. Have a blessed day.