Aww, the shameage

I was walking along the street today, and i walked past an ANZAC person collecting donations for anzac day. My first reaction was to walk straight past without even considering donating any money. Then in a period of a few split seconds, I thought about how horrible WWI and WWII were, and especially about the poor brave soldiers that fought and lost their lives at Gallipoli. It was then that i realised I had to donate some money. So i stopped walking and opened my wallet: I had a $1 coin and a $2 coin... I had to make a decision,

The options I had were either:
1. Forget about it and walk away
2. Donate $1 coin
3. Donate $2 coin
4. Donate both $1 coin and $2 coin.

If i just carried on walking away, i would be able to save some money which could be spent on other 'more important', selfish things like buying bottles of 1.6L coke rather than 1L bottles of coke... and well, money is hard to get when ur a full time student with no constant supply of income.

If i gave the $1 coin, i would have saved $1(or $2) which could be spent on other things like buying lunch when i was at university or to help pay for a train ticket if i was on the train and couldn't find my train pass. (Cos being kicked off the train for not being able to buy a ticket would be very embarassing.)

If I gave the $2 coin, i would feel better about having made at least a decent donation, and would be able to proudly tell myself: 'I am not cheap.'

If i gave the $1 coin and the $2 coin, i would be feeling so much better that i would probably have been on a natural high for the rest of the day.

In about 10 seconds, i had made my choice: I would give my $1 coin. So i walked up to the retired anzac soldier and told him i would like to make a donation. He didn't say anything but he smiled at me. I put the $1 coin into the donation bucket. As i did this, i had a quick look at what other people had given: all i remember seeing was a bloody $10 note. Someone had given a $10 note??! Aww i feel the shameage! (Unless it was just intentionally placed there...)

Then i took the red anzac flower that was implicitly offered to me. Judging by the anzac soldier's facial expressions, i think i might have rudely grabbed the flower out of his hand: Aww im so guttered!

Then i tried to pin the flower onto my t-shirt, and found i cudn't figure out how to pin it on properly. It kept falling off when i started walking. So i started smiling and tried to convey the message to the other people walking behind me, 'don't worry about me guys, i'll get this eventually', in case someone offered to help me pin the flower on. No one did.
But in the end i just stuck the flower in my pocket and marched on. Because to me, making a donation to a charity shouldn't be about getting recognition for it. It's more about having cared and made a donation to it, and in the case of the ANZACs, it is about saying "we shall remember them!"

(Hmm... maybe i shud have given all the money in my wallet... *Jokes*)