"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." -Sir Winston Churchill

Hot and sunburned, but thrilled that I helped build this house!

I need to refer back to my 30 x 30 list, which is the whole basis of this blog. 'Volunteer Regularly' is on there as one of my goals. Recently someone told me that they had "grown out of serving others and now focus more on serving myself." I was floored. I focus so much of my time on service to others in any capacity that I was kind of offended at this person's comment. Additionally, to say that you 'grow out of' serving others is a completely ridculous remark to me. It's not a stage of life, like potty training or your "party phase." How can you not help others? How can you be so self-absorbed that you wouldn't look around and see someone that needs help? They are everywhere, I assure you. Or worse, look around, acknowledge that there is someone that needs your help and then completely ignore it? Selllllfish. So, I'm going to make this a short and sweet entry about why volunteering and service to others isn't really hard or a huge time commitment.

Common Gripe #1: "But I don't have enough time!!"  I volunteer during the school year at a local elementary school and I read with a 9 year old girl. We meet every week for 1 hour. ONE HOUR. That's IT! Every week the little girl and I talked about different things and little by little, her reading improved and a friendship formed. By the end of the school year she was clinging to me begging me to come back in the fall. Of course I will, but that meant a lot. How did I get into that? I went to the United Way website and looked for volunteer opportunities. There are so many options as far as how much time you want to commit and what you'd like to do. If you don't like kids, that's cool, there are nursing homes, animal shelters, even picking up trash in a neighborhood! Friends, pick a hobby of yours and find a volunteer opportunity that matches it.

Common Gripe #2: "I can't get away from work and my weekends are too packed!" I told my boss that I have this commitment during my job interview and she was thrilled to let me go. Not only that, but she didn't want me to use that time as lunch! She wanted me to volunteer and THEN go to lunch. If you don't have a boss that is willing to let you go out into the community and do some good and be a positive representation of your organization, then your boss sucks and you need to look for a new job. If you absolutely can't steal away from "The Man" then carve out some time in your selfishly busy weekend and do something. Even if it's just once a month!

There are also civic groups to join and get involved with service. Kiwanis is a good one. Many Young Professional organizations have a big focus on service. I'm going to my first Young Variety event this weekend. It's like the Variety Club, but for people in their 20s and 30s and we only work with children's organizations such as Special Olympics or Boys and Girls Club. I think I'm going to be tasked with building bicycles on Saturday, so say a prayer for the poor kids that will be pedalin' around on my handiwork!

Me with some of the best Habitat-ers ever in a neighborhood I helped build!

Common Gripe #3: "I don't feel like I'm making a difference!" I can see how shoveling food on trays in a soup kitchen can be tedious and you don't really see that what you're doing is making a difference. The 'squeaky wheels' are always going to gripe about something with a sense of entitlement, but take a look around that kitchen and find a few kids that are gobbling up that food. Or a young mom. Or an elderly person. Look around for the good. Now, if you want an opportunity where you get more bang for your proverbial buck, I suggest Habitat for Humanity. I must say I'm a little bias, but after one day working on a house, you can see that you put together the wall framing and raised all four walls, maybe some interior walls, whatever. You can SEE the difference that you made. You can talk to the family that will be living in the home because they are required to work side by side with the volunteers on something called "sweat equity" in lieu of a down payment. You can see for yourself how grateful they are and twenty years down the road, you can drive past that house and say, look at that. I helped build someone's home. It's the most gratifying feeling in the world.

When you help others and you see the impact that's made on their life, you tend to be a happier person. Your quality of life increases. Be happy and live up to ol' Churchill's quote: We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."