I’m am lucky to have the opportunity to Give Back through my work. Since I run HR there, I also run most of our Give Back programs and get ample opportunity to volunteer my time through my job. From spending a morning at a community kitchen prepping and serving lunch, to bringing in an LGBTQ+ youth tech camp to our office and doing a resume writing workshop, to planning crafts and water balloon games for kids staying at the women’s and children’s shelter, to attending the weekend events like SkipFest (for Foster Angels) and Hands on Housing (fixing up homes for disadvantaged people in our community) . . . there is rarely a shortage of options to donate my time.
I try to show up. I try to do what I can. But the truth is I don’t really give much time outside of these initiatives. I haven’t had a steady volunteer opportunity since I volunteered in college for the animal shelter, spending a few hours once a week in the cat room. Over the years since I moved to Austin I have (half-heartedly) looked for opportunities I’m interested in (and for a spell I helped at the Human Rights Campaign local headquarters yet getting yelled at by transphobic old people is too much for my fragile heart), but I was having a hard time finding the energy for my own life. Looking back, I know prioritizing volunteering would have helped.
But this year I’ve proven to myself that I have more time and energy than I could have imagined in the recent past.
(Side tangent: Now I kind of want to give those years a name? Like how a period of time doesn’t get its name until it’s over? It is too dramatic to call those years the Dark Ages? The years I’m entering are the Renaissance? Yeah, I thought so.)
A coworker shared a volunteer opportunity a few months ago in our general communication channel called Education Connection: a local program where volunteers partner with the school to help children improve their literacy. You come in and read with a couple of kids once a week. I signed up immediately. Books. Kids. A routine schedule with a 30-minute commitment that I can easily fit into my workday.
I’ve been going the process of signing up over the last month or so, background check etc, and tonight I finished the online training and completed all the steps. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be starting a weekly schedule of visiting a nearby school and reading with kids for the remainder of the school year.
I’m really excited about it. I did someone similar as a high schooler and went down to the elementary school weekly to read with a few kids. And my dad has been a role model for years, volunteering with the elementary school to read aloud a book to the entire class when he could (the first pick was always The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis).
I also remember still how hard it was for me to get into reading. I hated it. Not being read to, but the learning itself was hard for me. I remember throwing a couple of fits to my poor mom. But when you find the right book, the right story, it changes your world. Thanks, Harry Potter. Thanks to my mom for buying the book when I told her not to and to my dad for reading the first four books out loud to my family.
Being able to advocate for children’s literacy in this small way feels like the right volunteer fit for me. I’ll keep you posted.
With Love,
Natalie