Kuala Lampur, March 31 -- "Don't ask what your country has done for you-ask what you have done for your country."

This phrase, loosely taken from President Kennedy's famous inaugural speech in 1961, has always lingered in my mind. I finally found my answer when I was selected for MyCorps Mission 9 @ Borneo 2.0 out of 300 applicants from all over the country.

For the uninitiated, MyCorps is a Malaysian international volunteering program initiated by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, with previous missions spanning various countries. This time, the focus was on Borneo, where 20 volunteers were deployed across four locations: Kuching, Miri (Sarawak), Semporna, and Kota Kinabalu (Sabah).

After an intensive three-day pre-departure training,...