EXPERIENCING THE JOY OF COMMUNITY

 

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about” .This quote by Margaret J Wheatley perfectly defines the importance of a community. I feel a community can only be built if there are compassionate and passionate souls who love to join forces and help others. My experience of being part of a community has been a journey so as to say.

Coming to Australia for doing my postgraduate degree was one of the best decision that I have made in life. But along with great decisions does come great difficulties. Adjusting to a new country ,culture and people are never easy .I ,being an introvert found it difficult to engage with people around and would quietly sit in my room lost in books, laptop and music!. I often thought to myself “who cares if I go out and actually engage in the community that I am in? As long as I have these materialistic things I am fine!” To think that I could survive like this was just an understatement! Within 3 months, I understood that I really needed to engage myself in my community by taking initiatives. I also understood that ,not being connected to the community also puts me in disadvantage as I had no idea what was going on around me.It was that there weren’t opportunities ,it was me who was ignoring all so that I wouldn’t leave my comfort zone.

So I decided to throw the procrastination out of the window and actually try to do some sort of community level engagement work. One day, as I was casually scrolling through my Facebook notifications, I noticed as volunteering post offered at YMCA op shop, Brisbane at upper mount Gravatt. Thought to myself; “This is chance that’s been offered to me which I should really take” and I jumped upon the opportunity. I applied for the post and within a week, the general manger, Kyla Rummel messaged me saying she would like to meet me and guess what I WENT!I would definitely say that joining YMCA op shop as a volunteer sales assistant was a golden opportunity because not only did I get to meet some wonderful women, it also helped me in overcoming my loneliness and anxiety that I had being an international student .

Secondly, I am grateful to wonderful staff working at YMCA op shop who welcomed with open arms and helped me enjoy my work over there. I have to say that working as volunteer at YMCA op shop has not only given me an opportunity to socialize and meet more people but also helped me learn new skills .Being an introvert ,communicating with others is a tough job ,but thanks to my volunteering experience ,I have started to become better.

Being a volunteer gives you a chance to improve yourself everyday while giving back to the community. Who would have thought that a FB post would make a big difference in my life!. I would definitely encourage all to join volunteering .YOU can easily find these volunteering post on social media such as FB,Instagram ,LinkedIn or you can just access the university portal and look under careers and jobs. Also talking to your colleagues, staffs and even your roommates can actually help you in finding volunteering work.

As quoted by Helen Keller “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much”.So get your feet working and join to become a volunteer !