My Personal Opinion on Volunteering

So, on Saturday I finished 80 hrs of community service for my SCWK 202 class (making my total from the beginning of my college career a whopping 130 documented* hrs) and I felt oh, so accomplished… that is, until I realized that my work wasn’t done. It would be completely wrong of me to stop volunteering at the height of the holiday season, especially since there are only two volunteers. I couldn’t do that. I know that some may not agree with me on this one, but I really believe that volunteering is very important. Not just for a class, but for individual development also. It provides one with a sense of self-worth and accomplishment simply because you get the chance to help others who are, in most cases, less fortunate than yourself. It’s a wonderful feeling that you get when someone walks up to you and says “you have just made my day”, or asks if they could hug you with tears of joy in their eyes, simply because you handed them a bag with enough food to last them for a few weeks or clothes that could keep them warm through the winter months.

Over the course of this semester, I spent the majority of my day, on Mondays and Fridays, at Pilgrims Inn. PI provides emergency assistance to men, women and children (in the form of donations, daycare, and a sense of security) all over the Rock Hill area and also provides shelter to families with no place to go. It strives off of the donations of others and if they are unable to accept donations then they pass them on to other organizations around the area that can. I am very glad that I decided to volunteer there. It’s taught me a lot. One major lesson I learned is that a career, no matter what path you choose, isn’t always going to be predictable. As a social worker I know that it’s not going to always be passing out donations and filing papers. This semester alone there has been a client that has gone in labor, a semi-truck full of food, and remodeling of parts of the building. The unexpected happened and about halfway into my volunteering I realized that I had to stop coming in and expecting to do the same things every time. I had to come in and be willing to face what ever was placed in front of me.

Life isn’t always sunshine and four leaf clovers people, if you haven’t volunteered before you should, you’ll gain a greater appreciation for what you have and you’ll learn that, sometimes, hard times are only lessened by hope.

Au revoir for now…