As a new Rotary year begins, I find myself reflecting not so much on titles or positions but on service itself.

In recent days, our club joined fellow Rotarians at Quirino High School in Quezon City for Brigada Eskwela to help prepare for the opening of classes. Just days earlier, our fellow Maharlikan, Dr. Jim P. Sanchez Jr., together with the Hospital on Wheels team and its many partners and volunteers, led a mission to Payatas that brought healthcare and other assistance to hundreds of beneficiaries.

Different activities, yet the same impulse: communities become stronger when people willingly give of themselves for the benefit of others.

On paper, Rotary is a service organization. In practice, it is a table where people who might never have otherwise met discover that they care about many of the same things. 

Professionals, public servants, entrepreneurs, retirees and volunteers bring different experiences, but often arrive at the same conclusion: some needs are too important to leave for someone else to address.

One thing that has always fascinated me about volunteer organizations is that nobody has to be there. Everyone has somewhere else they could be. Yet they still show up.

Perhaps that is because some responsibilities are assigned, while others are chosen.

The activities of the past week reminded me of this distinction. Neither the Hospital on Wheels nor Brigada Eskwela were driven by obligation alone. They happened because people looked at the need and decided, “That concerns me too.”

We often associate responsibility with titles, appointments and job descriptions. Yet some meaningful responsibilities arrive without any of those things. They emerge when we encounter a need and quietly decide not to walk past it.

As a Muslim, I find myself reflecting on the concept of amanah. It is often translated as entrusted responsibility. I have come to appreciate that it applies not only to the duties attached to our positions, but also to what we choose to do with the abilities and opportunities entrusted to us.

The older I get, the more I believe that service is not merely something we do. It is how we account for what has been entrusted to us.

Maybe that is why the idea resonates with me. It asks a question I have been thinking about more often in recent years: What do we do with what we have been given?

As we welcome a new Rotary year, we also welcome the stewardship of Atty. Victor Pablo C. Trinidad as club president. A lawyer, fellow civil servant and committed Rotarian, he now accepts a responsibility that, like most worthwhile responsibilities, is voluntary.

Among those helping guide our club is Pastor Mar M. Reyes Jr., Past District Governor of Rotary International District 3780. For a club as young as ours, the continued presence of someone who has seen Rotary at its highest levels provides both perspective and continuity.

I remain grateful to have been invited into Rotary by Atty. Luis Meinrado C. Pangulayan, our charter president and founder. Despite his demanding responsibilities in government and his longstanding commitment to public service, he remains equally devoted to the club he founded three years ago. Watching him continue to invest time in that effort is a reminder that some forms of service survive long after office hours end.

As this new Rotary year unfolds, I look forward to continuing this journey. The activities of the past week, from a community health mission in Payatas to preparations for the opening of classes in Quezon City, remind us that meaningful change often begins with a simple decision to become involved.

Perhaps that is where service begins: the moment we decide that a community’s need is also our own.