“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

These words of Gandhi were not mere rhetoric. After tirelessly advocating social justice in South Africa, fervidly trekking 250 miles during the Dandi Salt March, and passionately giving his life to the pursuit of unity and peace through service, would anybody argue that Gandhi was not a radical instrument for change in India?

Great men like Gandhi, who committed themselves to service and social justice, need us to pick up the torch once they’re gone – to continue the long, demanding, and exacting path in accomplishing equality and raising the weakened members of humanity up from the mire of social dilapidation.

I have engaged myself with social service in the hope that, just like Ghandi, my actions will spread like wildfire bringing the change our society greatly needs today.

Service for others has resided in the heart of America since the first shot rang at Concord. What did de Tocqueville notice during his visit? It was not the unique nature of Jacksonian democracy or the great advances of the market revolution. Instead, he witnessed service. Out of no hope for reimbursement, citizens would form a committee to aid a destitute townsman; out of no care for payment, neighbor would sacrifice for neighbor. This sacrifice has served as the backbone in making America great over the years.

Sadly, I see what once helped make America great has slowly become less and less. Therefore, it is our honorable responsibility to give our hearts to service like never before…to light the soul of America with the torch we’ve been carrying spreading the love and kindness back to the streets of America and then past our shores to the rest of the world.