Volunteering – It’s All About You

Done right, volunteering is one of the most self-centered activities you can do for yourself.

Now wait! Just because a word starts with “self” doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Think about it. Imagine how awesome your life will be once you’ve found that special way of volunteering that rocks your world. Trust me – once you’ve found your “give back” match, your life will be forever changed for the better. Really!

Want proof? My volunteer journey started in 1999 when I made a New Year’s resolution to try something I’ve never done before – and I decided to take a vacation by myself. I was really afraid of traveling to the Caribbean alone, if only because I believed that the resort staff would laugh at me for showing up solo.

Nonetheless, I was determined to take myself to some tropical paradise. After a few Google searches, I realized that laying on a beach, umbrella drink in hand, just might not be for me. I’d heard about service vacations and put Google to work again to see what was out there. Besides, telling people I was traveling alone for a service vacation sounded a lot more noble – and I was “excused” for traveling solo!

And so I discovered Global Volunteers (http://www.globalvolunteers.org) and in July of 1999 I was Quito-bound. (Ironically, my dear friend flew in from Holland to join me for the two-week tour, so I wasn’t alone after all)!

And I was hooked. I don’t know if it was the day care center overflowing with handicapped kids, the Ecuadorian culture or the heinously cheap beer, but I knew that international service vacations would be a permanent part of my life.

Since then I’ve traveled to India to teach English to Hindu orphans (it was during 9-11, but that’s another story), Salvador, Brazil, to play and rough-house with kids infected with AIDS and HIV, and am planning another service vacation to celebrate the big 5-0 …will it be an orphanage in Peru? Teaching English in China? Or Mother Theresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta?

And that’s what we all want, isn’t it – that powerful connection to another soul. Mother Theresa put it best when she said, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”

And so, to start 2007 off right, try being completely selfish – try a service vacation and watch your life change before your eyes. It will. Promise!

Get out and give back.

Jane Hess is a free-lance writer. Please send your comments, volunteer experiences and suggestions for future columns to http://www.getoutandgiveback.blogspot.com.