This post originally appeared on Service is Power, Megan Hill’s website dedicated to her business as a nonprofit grant writer and her life as an AmeriCorps alumna. It appeared on May 11, 2010.

Ever since my gig with AmeriCorps NCCC, I’ve pondered: Can one person make a significant difference? Because if not, I knew there was very little point to my often menial work in the corps–the tiny shards of hurricane debris we removed from the south Louisiana swamp come to mind. At a certain point, I was so frustrated with the apparent lack of real change happening, with the lack of visible momentum as a result of those long hours I toiled, that I wanted to quit.

It’s a topic I’ve revisited many times, and one I’m largely at peace with for myself. But I wanted to bring it up here and get some feedback from you, readers.

It came up again for me recently, during a viewing of the documentary No Impact Man. It’s the story of one man’s attempt to, well, change the world. Colin Beavan lives in a New York City apartment with his wife and young daughter, and together they embark on a year-long project: live with zero environmental impact. They turn off the lights, unplug everything, eat locally, stop flying, etc. I’m probably not doing it justice here, but just imagine heating your bath water on the stove and using homemade shampoo and eating by candlelight and buying only what you can get at the farmer’s market without using any plastic wrapping. Things got pretty rough for those folks.

At one point, Colin starts to question himself and the legitimacy of his project. What is it that I am doing here, really? What does it all mean? Am I making a difference? It’s the same crisis of conscience I had in NCCC. Colin is well-spoken on the topic in the movie:

The fact of the matter is that if only I change, it’s not going to make a difference, but the hope is that if each of us as individuals change, it’s going to inspire everybody to change. So I believe the most radical political act there is, is to be an optimist. The most radical political act there is, is to believe that if I change, other people will follow suit.

I have no doubt that Colin’s project, at the very least, got a lot of people thinking about the impact of their habits and activities. But what about those of us who don’t make a movie that is then viewed by thousands (millions?) of people? What about those of us whose good deeds really do go unrecognized? Is there value in that kind of work?

It can be hard to see it at the time, but I think there is. If you make a small difference in one person’s life, you’ve helped heal one of the world’s many wounds. What more can we reasonably expect of ourselves, than to begin every day with the knowledge that even our smallest actions have power?

I disagree with Colin slightly: if I am the best person I can possibly be, I’ve already made the world a better place, even if I haven’t inspired others. Although I think that other people will naturally follow suit, because good deeds are naturally infectious.

Megan Hill is a New Orleans native and a frequent volunteer. She is a certified nonprofit grant writer and a freelance journalist covering travel, sustainable food, and the environment. Megan is a two-term AmeriCorps alumna and she is writing a memoir about her time in AmeriCorps NCCC.