Why I do What I do

It is obscenely late. I am in the lobby of our hotel, waiting for the last four Hero Holiday Thailand volunteers to arrive with our staff member from the airport. I haven’t slept more than 5 hours total since Saturday night and it is now Tuesday night on our side of the world. 

At the beginning of each Hero Holiday that I have been a part of since we did our first trip in 2005, I have often been reminded of why I do what I do. The memories, the feeling of being a part of something bigger than myself and even the love to meet and make new friends. But it is about more than that. It is actually about what motivates each of us at the core of who we are.

Life is just as messy in my world as anyone else’s. Maybe even more so at times. Yet each time I come back to this country to be a part of one of our Hero Holidays, I am reminded that we are all part of a much bigger picture. We actually can’t be separated from each other, no matter how much we may like to believe the contrary.

The children that we will be working and playing with over the course of the next 12 days are part of the reason that this trip exists. They have survived exploitation, trafficking and even slavery at times, and yet they still trust, hope, and laugh. Their resiliency is addictive in some ways for me, because my own life can get so complicated that I need people like them to bring me back to the bigger picture. 

But there is another part of this picture that is just as exciting, rewarding and valuable: the volunteers that join us here. Their circumstances may be worlds apart from what we are about to encounter together, but their hearts  are the same: they want to give and receive love and allow the power of hope to change their lives as well. 

And this is why those of us in LiveDifferent would say that we are blessed to do what we do. We can be facilitators of hope and agents of change, simply by being here to walk arm in arm with both sides of the equation of freedom. In short, we get to be a part of the raw elements of life every day. 

For those of you who support us and the people that join us on Hero Holiday, thanks. For those of you who work with us to get into your schools and communities with our message of hope, thanks. And for those of you who continue to live out hope each and every day, no matter what, thanks. This is why we should each do what we do. Because we are all worth it in the end.