The thrills of being a volunteer

Welcome to my entry for the hive learners weekly featured contents and the current title is volunteering. Before we dive into the main body, I believe it will be appropriate to give the meaning of a volunteer first. So, who is a volunteer? According to the Cambridge dictionary;

A volunteer is a person who does something, especially helping other people, willingly and without being forced or paid to do it.

It's safe to say that we have all been volunteers at one point or the other in our lives unless maybe there's a reason why you have never helped some. There's a certain joy or happiness that comes with doing something for people and seeing the smile on their faces, there's this thrill that comes with knowing that you have supported someone and they are happy because of that support, I have felt it and I know you have too.

I have done my fair share of volunteering in the past and I will continue to do so whenever the need arises for it. The voluntary works I have done in the past include helping out to sand-fill some bad roads in my neighborhood, joining other people to clean up a church every Saturday, volunteering as a teacher in a computer school, taking part in a sanitation exercise at my university, and a lot of others. I will talk more about the last two.

Volunteering as a teacher

_{Image by pch.vector on Freepik}

This happened back in 2014 when I just graduated from a computer school, but the main teacher left around that same time and the owner of the school was having a hard time getting a replacement. Students were stranded because they didn't have anyone to guide them (the owner only knows about hardware and not software), so I started helping out by teaching them what I know.

I know I have graduated from the program but I couldn't just leave when I know there's no one to teach the students who are still there, and that's why I started helping out until the school owner can get a replacement. I didn't realize I will be very good at teaching because what I initially planned was to just answer people's questions and put them on the right track when they are lost but with time I just took on the role of a teacher completely.

I did that for about 2 months; leave home as early as 8 am and come in the evening at around 6 pm, all without payment. The owner was finally able to employ a teacher after 2 months but I still hanged around for a while because I love seeing people making progress on their learning and celebrating their small wins, that was more than enough for me.

Before I finally left the school, a small party was held to appreciate me and I never expected it, tears gathered in my eyes as people started saying good things and appreciated me for all the help I have given them (ok the same tears are gathering now 😆). It has been over 7 years but I still remember that day like it was yesterday, if I was paid for my services, that money won't even last a year but now I have a memory that has been with me for years.

Volunteering for a sanitation exercise

_{Image by ASphotofamily on Freepik}

My university announced that there was going to be a sanitation exercise to help clean up the school environment and they asked for volunteers. Usually, the non-academic staffs of the university were in charge of cleaning the school environment but they were on strike during that period (2019), so the school had to rely on its students.

A lecture-free day was given on the day of the sanitation and I was so happy because it means I can stay home all day, we students don't joke with free school days. But on the day of the sanitation, I was lying in bed and thinking: "how do you feel now that other students are cleaning up the school and you're at home lazying around?". I didn't even realize when I got up and got ready, I grabbed my Bluetooth speaker coz why will cleaning up the school have to be boring?

I went straight to my faculty and met my classmates there. We were divided into groups and I ended up with the group that cleaned up the fields and parks around the faculty, it was very fun coz we were singing and dancing to the songs being played by my Bluetooth speaker.

_{This was the last field we cleaned and if you look behind, you can see how dirty it is. [Photo credit: @kushyzee]}

_{And this is it after we were done. [Photo credit: @kushyzee]}

I was very proud of myself for helping to clean up the school environment because everywhere was looking very beautiful. I held my head up high and with confidence, I said; "yes, I am part of the wonderful people that made this happen"

Thanks for reading

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