I know we live in this capitalist society and people tend to think that volunteering is basically doing unpaid work, but I am here to spark again the passion for these activities and to offer you a few reasons why volunteering is amazing and fruitful.
It helps you grow both personally and emotionally
To be very honest with you, it doesn’t matter how much work experience you have if your work is all about staying in front of a screen and doing some tasks – if you are completely deprived of human interaction and work as an IT programmer, as a web designer and so on and so forth, you might actually be the people who need volunteering the most.
Why am I saying that?
Volunteering is all about learning how to interact with different people, it’s all about understanding how to talk and how to find the connection with people who might have nothing in common with you. But you know, that’s the challenge – people don’t have to have identical personalities to properly discuss with each other and there is the tremendous advantage that you can learn something from everyone. So, in fact, volunteering might be one of the best experiences regarded from this perspective.
You get connections
Most people I know who volunteer tend to know a lot of people – ”Do you need a plumber? Don’t worry, I know someone from the last event I volunteered at”. It’s simply amazing how many people you get to know and how close the relationships can stick – although every event and organization has a theme, sometimes people who are not related professionally with that theme show up just because they want to know more, to evolve, to grow. That’s how you get to meet them!
You never know too much
One of my teachers used to say that no one has ever died being ”too knowledgeable” – thus, we should try and learn something from every experience, we should try to genuinely interact with the others, because each person we meet certainly knows something we don’t know.
How cool does that sound, am I right?
The reward is emotional and spiritual
Sure, most times, you don’t receive any material object for your activity as a volunteer, but most times the reward is intrinsic. You don’t always need objects or money to have the feeling that an experience was worth it – sometimes, all you need is that feeling in your guts that you’ve done something amazing and unusual, that you’ve helped someone in need, that you’ve invested your time in something that is 100% amazing.
You get to manifest your aesthetic and artistic self
Sometimes we are so busy and caught in our own minds that we forget to offer ourselves some time to have fun, to paint, draw and simply be creative – and sometimes volunteering does that for us! Your talents and skills might be vital for some organizations and using them will bring you a lot of joy! And I know what you’re about to say – ”I’m not even that talented, I’m just fooling around”. You know what? I don’t believe you – because I know how easily we, people, desconsider ourselves!
I don’t know how convincing my arguments have been, but if you don’t agree with me, go give it a try and check out how you’re feeling after volunteering – trust me, there are endless opportunities and you will definitely find something that suits you and your passions!
