Selfless Acts &Their Impact

         Selfless acts. They are a wonderful thing, but how far can they get you? Many times in life I’ve had to commit a selfless act and upon doing so I’ve hurt myself in the long run. The people who I’ve helped of course walked away with great advice and a win in life…but I got nothing but strife.

         First, I should touch on what an actual selfless act is for those of us who aren’t as aware as others. Selflessness is the act of sacrificing one’s own interest for the greater good. It can also be classified as unselfish, chivalrous, or magnanimous. It sounds simple enough to be selfless right? Wrong.

         Many people have debated over the years if it was actually possible to be completely selfless.  Some say it just isn’t human nature. A ‘thought out’ selfless act isn’t a selfless act at all really, in my own opinion. To be totally selfless, it must be a conscience decision. You can’t go home and think to yourself, ‘Now what can I do to be unselfish in this situation?’ This would mean you planned something to make someone happy. That would be a KIND act.  For one to be totally selfless, they must have morals and know right from wrong. A truly unselfish person doesn’t have to think about the things they do.

         For example, a girl and her best friend are taking a swim.  The girl decides she’s getting a little cold, and surfaces herself. She notices her best friend flopping around and starts laughing, yelling at her that she shouldn’t fake drowning. She then realizes her friend is actually drowning.  This girl can call for help and try to tell her friend everything is going to be okay, or she can dive in and try to save her friend by herself. The unselfish thing would be to dive in and save her friend, even though this would be risking her own life as well. The smart thing to do would be to call for help.  Her situation doesn’t hurt her in the long run(unless they die of course), so it’s an act of complete selflessness.          

         Reckless selflessness is what my life is comprised of. Reckless selflessness is the most common of them all, because people have to make sacrifices every day. The ‘reckless’ part comes from the fact that you are making things somewhat harder on yourself. I make decisions that help others but make my life ‘hell’.  Of course, it feels wonderful in the end that the person is happier, but in the end I’m still the same aggravated, emotionally angered Alexis.

         One such situation really impacted my life the most. While it wasn’t the worse, it is amongst them.  Involving my boyfriend, it also tainted my outlook on life itself.

         While I struggled with that fact that my boyfriend had some kind of an obsessive-compulsive friendship with a girl that was perfection walking around on two legs, I also wanted him to be happy.  When the friendship was seemingly falling apart, it was the happiest day of my life…until I heard his story. Oh gosh, it had to be the most pitiful thing I’d ever heard.  It was like a tragic love story mixed in with a love that was doomed to fail.  That was the moment I realized I had to do something because I loved him with all my heart, and even if it meant possible heartbreak for me, he needed help.  He’d given up completely on the friendship and he seemed to be hopeless.  So being the loving person I was, I intervened and gave this girl a call.  She spat out a pathetic life story and had me on the phone for hours, but I listened to get my point across.  When I told her what he thought, she got very upset and proceeded to cry.  Did I mention that I’m an all around selfless person?  Her tears made me want to nurture her, so that’s what I did and then I promised I’d make it right.  When I hung up, I cried also knowing that what I had just did would ultimately lead to me being shattered. It did. But that part is beside the point, the moral to this is that my boyfriend has a newly restored friendship, and I have a scarred ego and a shady outlook on life now.

         While I find other peoples happiness to be satisfying, in a completely innocent, non-perverted way, I also would like to be happy some of the time. All of this leads me to a question that possibly would stump the most intelligent people; Is being selfless healthy for the human psyche, and is it beneficial to us?