Dorm Service and the Spirit of Non Sibi
By: Andrea Luo
We here at Exeter strive to embody non sibi in our daily lives. Non sibi means not for self, and that means helping others, from small acts of kindness to elaborately planned projects. These actions come with the intention to make a difference in the community and the world beyond.
In the past few months, we have begun seeing different dorms helping to clean up after dinner as the dining hall begins to clear. This is a mandatory dorm service, so whether or not people enjoy it doesn’t make a difference in their participation. So is having mandatory dorm service a good idea or not?
Though it takes up our precious free time, engaging in service like this has a positive impact on us as individuals and on the community. It helps us build character by influencing a change in our attitude and also builds a tighter dorm community.
It is important to recognize the hard work that members of our community put into making our campus the way it is, clean and neat at all times during the day, allowing things to run smoothly. In the midst of our busy schedule, we don’t often have time to stop and appreciate the work that makes our lives so easy and convenient. Mandatory dorm service allows us to designate a time during the day to acknowledge the hard work that others put in for us and helps us to display an appreciation of their efforts.
Furthermore, it helps bring the dorm community closer together. It isn’t very often when all grades of a dorm are required to work together with a common goal in their mind. Doing this allows the collaboration of dorms and the common ground of appreciating the often unrecognized members of the community.
On the contrary, people may see this initiative as useless or unnecessary because these services may be done by other people. For example, there are those whose job it is to look after the dining hall. Going into service with this mindset shows us the negative impact of being at a prestigious institution like Exeter. Being in this academic environment, it is sometimes hard for us to realize that our responsibilities extend beyond the intellectual. We take tasks such as cleaning for granted.
In the end, the community’s response to dorm service is a reflection of something greater.
Furthermore, cleaning up after people will inevitably be something that people don’t really want to do. Yet, mandatory service changes our perspective on things: it orients us to be considerate of our actions and be mindful of who deals with the consequences.
Dining hall norms and traditions at Exeter are often disrespectful. One major thing is the tradition of clapping when someone breaks a piece of dishware. Not only does this embarrass the individual who dropped it, but people also overlook the fact that someone has to come around and clean up the mess afterward.
On a smaller but more commonly-seen degree, the mess we leave when we get up from the table, or the unfinished food left over on our plate, is something that we don’t realize. It is easy to look past our ignorance when it comes to leaving things out and food waste.
By taking part in mandatory dorm service, we see what’s being left behind. We are put in the position of dealing with other people’s mess afterward, as other people do for us. Mandatory dorm service helps us to become more mindful of the effect of our compounding actions due to thinking about convenience rather than our impact on others and the world.
Mandatory dorm service is a simple form of non sibi. Dorm service makes us conscious of our ignorance. Above all, it is important to see this task as an experience to learn and reflect on our actions, as well as an opportunity to show our gratitude toward members of the community who work to make our Exeter experience so ideal.