Why Volunteer

Why do I volunteer?

I have asked myself this question so many, many times.  It is making time to do something that has no paycheck, sometimes I have to work a nine hour day for free. Sometimes I have to deal with people I want nothing to do with or I feel embarrassed to see. During an active volunteer season I spend a lot of time away from home and my family.

There are many other reasons, better, more selfish reasons I volunteer.  I believe very strongly, that people should give their time to something that aids and/or brings awareness to something others can not see and/or talk about. It is so very important to remain humble and appreciate the life we are living.  Our lives, especially as we get older, remind us that our time here is so short and we need to help those who can not help themselves. We need too help those that think they shouldn’t ask for help. I need to volunteer and do something selfless so I can remind myself that others depend on me. I depend on them to love and appreciate me, that in spades is payment enough. Money will not help me when I pass. My name on a plaque will not cure my sisters disease but it will help us find that cure. Show that I was a soldier and advocate for her and her struggle. Volunteering helps me step up and out of my box as well, and for that I am very thankful.  I think without my pleasure and experience meeting and working with so many volunteers I would have become a far more bitter and cynical person.

Volunteering is also very fun, I have had the honor of sharing and celebrating so many successes that are not my own. I have had fine meals with brilliant, selfless and lovely individuals.  I have rubbed shoulders with passionate, highly educated and deeply caring people over the years. I have made some dear friends some of whom I could even say are like family now. I have met great leaders and great mentors on this volunteer journey.  Let my legacy be that I did all I could to help people who could not help themselves. It is worth more to me than any amount of money can pay for. Selflessness for humanity, it really is, I believe, what we are truly all here for.