“The more you give, the more you get.”
The phrase, though cliche, is the embodiment of how I’ve grown up. Ever since I was a kid, my family instilled in me the importance of giving to and helping others. It’s become a way of life rather than just a good deed.
It was never about “giving back” — it wasn’t a debt owed, but a conscious choice made every day to live a life full of helping others.
From the day my Nanu (grandma) found out that someone in her community was in an abusive relationship about 30 years ago, she supported her — both financially and emotionally — all the way to 2021. My Nanu helped her get out of the relationship and sent her son to school; my Nanu paid all of it.
Giving despite no materialistic gain for herself never stopped her because it was never about that. It was about the calls she got years later, telling her how the same kid who was running around the streets of Pakistan was now a successful CEO in London. It was about helping people out of the goodness in her heart, hoping they grow to live a life where they can pay it forward.
It was never about the money — it was the fact that someone was willing to give something of their own in order to help someone else, which is the very thing I live up to every day. Whether it is picking up my friends when they don’t feel like driving or talking people through the things happening in their life, I live a life of giving and I wouldn’t change anything about it. My Nanu was, and still is, that person for more people than I could imagine; she’s that person for me, and I’ve spent my entire life trying to be the same for others.
I live a life of unparalleled luxury; I have access to everything I need and more. I’m blessed to be able to go out and get what I want whenever I want it, so I try to use a fraction of that for others.
On my grandpa’s death anniversary, I sent money to Pakistan to feed the underprivileged in honor of him. Every year on my grandma’s birthday, instead of a random gift to her, I give her a gift of helping others — I always save up and ask her to send it to someone who needs it. Whenever I go to the cemetery, I put 11 flowers on my grandpa’s grave, and then take the last one of the bouquet and put it on an empty grave. On my way in and out, I pray for every grave I walk past. Now, I’ve started driving up to my local hospital and putting flowers on random cars in the parking lot every month.
Giving has never been about some extravagant gesture, it has always been about the act of making a difference from the bottom of my heart.
All I want in my life is to live a life of giving — one where I give more than I get.
