Why We Volunteer

I have never had much opportunity to volunteer in my life. If you could say that it counts as volunteering, I used to go to my mom's work a lot to help her out filing and such, or entertaining the senior residents of the housing complex she works in. I have never said of my own accord however, I want to volunteer my time to help someone less fortunate than myself. Why do we do that anyway? Some people show pity to those that they know were not as lucky in life as they are, others do it to put on their resume. For me, the most sincere kind of volunteer is someone who participates in something because they have a true and personal connection to the cause they volunteer for. For instance, those who used to be homeless and in life were able to achieve success, then going to volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen. Or even someone who's family or friends were involved in something that touched them personally and they decide to volunteer for that cause. Anything other than this to me, can only be a means of making one's self feel like they have done something good. To get that good feeling and pat themselves on the back. Its not wrong for sure, you are still helping other people, they don't care if its just to appease your own state of mind, but to me it is not an entirely honest way of volunteering. I suppose that if you volunteer for a particular cause long enough, without it having ever had a real connection to you, then it does become a part of you, but to reach such a level would require tremendous commitment. If it were not a cause that I were whole heartedly invested in out of personal experience, I would not consider it true volunteering.