Introduction
I’ve been writing about something that has become a regular part of my life: volunteering. I started regularly volunteering in 2024. I’ve been thinking about the reasons I volunteer — and I have found that there are some not so obvious benefits that volunteering provides. Instead of sharing all of my ideas at once, I’ve been sharing a few at at time. (Less pressure!) Following that approach, here are reasons 6 and 7.
A description of the feature image is at the end of the post.
Reason 6: Volunteering is kryptonite for your haters
We all have our haters. I’m willing to admit it. You know you do. And I’m sure there are people out there, right now, who could list off at least 5 things they dislike about you. Some grudge they’ve been holding onto for years….
Maybe in the past you might have internalized this hate and asked yourself…am I a bad person? The answer is: NO! As long as you’re volunteering, you get to say, with the type of documented evidence employers say they love to see on a resume, that you are NOT a bad person. You volunteer at senior homes. You deliver Meals on Wheels. You are not a bad person.
Are you still flawed and imperfect? Yes, most definitely. But a bad person? No.
Not anymore, haters!!
Reason 7: Am I…✨better than everyone?✨
- Do you play BINGO with seniors or deliver food to home-bound seniors?
- Do you volunteer at soup kitchens or support the food insecure?
- Do you volunteer with the physically or cognitively disabled?
- Do you volunteer with children?
- Do you do park clean-ups, urban farming, or something similar?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you might be…✨better✨ than everyone else. *tucks hair behind ears*
Sometimes I think this perspective is a little bit selfish and pretentious but, if you volunteer, I think you might be a little bit entitled to ask this question of yourself and answer in the affirmative.
I admit, both reasons 6 and 7 might be THE main, “selfish” reasons to volunteer. No matter what else you’re doing in life, being able to say to yourself, “I deliver Meals on Wheels” really makes you feel like…maybe you’re…✨better✨.
I was remembering some disagreements with someone in my past. I can come back and say to them: I am not a bad person. No one who does as much volunteering as I do, doing the activities I do, helping people as much as I do…. Nope! You cannot accuse someone who does all that of being a bad person.
So if you were looking for any kind of ammunition against haters and negative self-talk volunteering might be your way to go.
The images for this post are from a project where volunteers cared for chickens and goats. The featured image includes a hen on some shelves. She was apparently trying to “brood” or become a mother. But there were no roosters, so that wasn’t going to happen. The goats were dairy goats about 4-6 months at the time. As for the chickens, we cleaned a lot of poop and we got to collect eggs.