Some people don’t have the time or even the motivation to start volunteering somewhere, but you’ll find that once you try, you’ll be rewarded in so many ways. I started volunteering with the Sue Ryder Foundation in Falmouth in October, after meeting the team at a Volunteering Fair on campus. I was attracted to the Foundation’s mission of helping people with illnesses, and also to the general friendliness of the manager, Alison, and the others – a friendly face is always welcoming! Volunteering has always been interesting to me because it’s a way of giving back without breaking the bank account, and I found it helped me in a lot of ways.
Volunteering with such an important charity has afforded me an outlook on fighting illnesses, and the help that comes from all walks of life. I work in the shop, and it’s a great place for people watching, and for finding out about the different kind of local people who live in Falmouth that, as a student, I wouldn’t get to interact with otherwise. There’s also the added bonus of making new friends out of your fellow volunteers, whether they’re old or young.
Volunteering anywhere can be hard when you’re a student, what with lectures and seminars and independent work, but I came to understand that being a volunteer with such a kind and friendly manager meant that you are free to be flexible as you need to be. You can fit volunteering around your schedule!
I never thought I’d say this, but volunteering, as you’ll see yourself if you take it up, is a great way to build confidence in yourself. I quickly found that working with clothes and fragile items meant that you had to be quick, but also careful. Being in a situation where you’re threading things with a sharp needle requires confidence, as surprising as that sounds, and that growth in confidence then helped me in other aspects of my life.
I truly believe that volunteering, and not just with a charity, can be rewarding in so many ways, even in the midst of the stresses of student life. Whether you choose to do it or not is up to you, but I really would encourage you to go for it, if only for the experience it will give you!