Tunnel InVision

Why would someone such as myself do work without pay? Because I am a volunteer. I use my own time to benefit others.

With my own time given towards these causes, the only gratitude I can achieve is a sense of selfgratitude. The concept of volunteering is destroyed with a reward of something with physical value, but how far does this definition run? It cannot run there and back from mental gratitude to physical. If someone buys someones your lunch for the laborous unpaid hours of work that they have given, is it still considered volunteering? And how broad can this concept go? If a man spends many hours a day working for such little pay in no ones eyes he is considered a volunteer.

So why do we volunteer? It seems easy enough to say because we feel the need to use our time to benefit others, but why would we do this? I think it is because deep down in all humans, we have this need to feel good about ourselves.

Everyone likes to feel good, it is in our nature. How we acquire this feeling is different for everyone. We all gain these warm fuzzy feelings in different ways. I guess some people just have an unnatural unspoken association with others, that we are able to gain their feelings. We live off their happiness and in return we give out more happiness. That is why we volunteer.