Volunteering «

But I did manage to complete my goal last year!!

My goal last year was to read 100 books. I’d decided to try doing one dedicated goal rather then the 3-8 New Year Resolutions everyone always does, which are inevitably lists of all the things we don’t actually do.

At the end of 2011, I’d finished 101 books. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

It’s not a challenge I’ll do every year, but maybe every 2-3 years. It’s nice to have a reason to force yourself to keep reading and to pick up books you might not have before. I read so many more recent books that are generally not part of my interest because when you’re plowing through books so quickly, you don’t really have to worry about wasting time or some bad book dragging on.

The downside to this sort of challenge is that you have to really scoot. Some books are fine to be digested in a couple bites but most books benefit from taking time to savor, think, and reflect. Often I’d finish a book in a whirlwind and be left wondering what just happened.

It also directly influences the types of books you read. I didn’t eliminate long books all together. The Three Musketeers was probably the longest book I read. Wicked and the Devil in the White City were both pretty dense reads too. But I did find myself frequently, sometimes without even realizing it, pushing off some of the longer books I’m interested in reading, or grabbing for shorter books when I felt overwhelmed by deadlines. In the end, it all evened out to probably an average of 300-400 pages a book. But I am entering 2012 with 10 500+ word books at the top of my queue (Moby Dick, Bleak House, Adam Bede, Les Miserables, Harry Potter 4, Little Women, Game of Thrones, The Bone People, 20 Years Later, Of Human Bondage, Autobiography of Mark Twain, etc.)

I set myself a new goal this year to finish 50 books, just to give myself the opportunity to track again. I also set a mini-goal of reading 100 short stories. That shouldn’t take a year, but I’ve been awful the past year about not reading them and figured I could use the motivation. I definitely enjoy novels more but as I’m hoping to write more short stories, I need to read more short stories!

If you’re on GoodReads, feel free to friend me on there! Sometimes I post book reviews, if I feel inclined, and I’m always up for a good book discussion. Mostly, though, I just like spying on what other people are reading!

About a month ago, I suddenly felt the inexplicable urge to volunteer. Nothing really had changed in my life to explain why I suddenly was really motivated to find some way to start volunteering. I’ve volunteered for various things and reasons (Girl Scouts, school extracurriculars, college class requirements) throughout my life, so it’s not that I’m unfamiliar with the volunteer scene.

However, one thing that has put me off when I’ve thought about it before was my inability to reliably commit to something each week. With all the job and joblessness chaos of the past 8 months, and then starting a new job with an unknown amount of travel ahead, I didn’t want to sign up for something only to have to cancel.

Fortunately, I found BostonCares.org . This organization helps bring volunteers and opportunities together –several hundred opportunities each month! The events vary in day, time, mission, duration and focus, meaning there is literally something for everyone. You sign up only for what you want and what fits your calendar. For me, this is perfect.

I did my first event two Saturdays ago, spending my Saturday morning working at the Harvest Food Bank in Cambridge. I helped organize food and put together vegetable bags before the event, then ran the clothes closet during open hours, and helped clean up afterwards. I didn’t directly change any lives, but it just felt so good to be doing something to help other people, knowing that there was nothing coming back to me in return.

This feeling of worth, this “helping high” that people get after some form of sacrifice (in this case, my Saturday morning) was a constant topic in my philosophy classes. Can we honestly say altruism, that selfless people, exist when in fact you get a very real, very wonderful emotional reward after doing good?

I don’t have an answer to that, but I do know that I left feeling bubbly and more useful than I’ve felt since graduating college. Sure, I do awesome, fun things through work, but I get paid to do that. It’s not quite the same. In college, I was dedicated to making myself a better, more intelligent person, which felt like a worthwhile pursuit. Since then, I’ve generally felt pretty useless. But volunteering just one time instantly made me feel better.

So this weekend, I woke up at 6:30AM on a Saturday morning (yikes!) so I could make it out of the house by 7:30, to make the hour long trek down to Dorchester, where I helped clean up a park for a few hours. Totally different type of work than my first volunteer experience, and yet I was equally happy. I actually wanted to stay longer, even though my job was INSANELY tedious.

I spent my morning picking up glass from around these large rocks that are right by the playground. Dozens are beer bottles have been broken around the area, and it was my job to find not only the large pieces, which frequently were mostly buried, but to also toss out the teeny tiny shards. I’d work on one section for half an hour, feel satisfied, and then the sun would hit it and I’d see sparkles. More glass. Well crap. The same thing would happen if you stuck a shovel in. A little bit of dirt would turn over and there you’d have a whole new layer of glass.

Tedious, for sure, but it was a nice day, and it felt good to be outside, cleaning up this beautiful park. I’ve always loved outdoor work and being in the dirt. Even Frank is thinking about joining me for some of these outdoor volunteer events, though with winter fast approaching, I won’t be doing so many more outdoorsy stuff until the spring.

I’m hoping that volunteering throughout the winter, though, will help stave off the bad winter depression I get every year. I spend so much of my time worrying about money and where to get it and how to pay bills when I don’t have enough, it’s nice just to do something in my life that doesn’t revolve around money. It’s like a last form of rebellion against the idea that all that matters is money and how to get it.

Here’s my bag of glass. That’s several hours of work right there. Doesn’t look like much but it was a better use of my time than just sleeping in!