[Aces McGee]

[ QUOTE ]
Selfish, I know, but I'm doing this largely for me

[/ QUOTE ]

Diablo,

This is probably beyond the scope of this thread, but the above statement has me curious. Does the satisfaction of volunteering come from donating your time to help people, or the act of helping them itself?

For example, if Habitat for Humanity (NOT the person for whom you were building the house) paid you to work on a project, would you be as satisfied with the experienced? More satisfied? Less?

I'm in no way knocking you for feeling this way: self importance or a similar motive is a major driver behind volunteering, and kudos to you for admitting it instead of pretending like civic duty is the sole reason behind your volunteering. I'm just curious because I know that I got the same level of satisfaction tutoring rich kids in math (for which I was paid very well by the kids' parents) as I did tutoring poor kids in math (for which I was paid minimum wage by the school), and that was no more or less satisfying than working at a community youth garden or working with the mentally handicapped (for which I wasn't paid at all). That is, the satisfaction I got came from helping someone who needed it and who couldn't otherwise help themselves.

-McGee