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Volunteering
I retired and had too much time on my hands
I decided to work as a volunteer
the downside of volunteering is that you don't get paid
the upside is you can pick and choose whatever you want
I sit and talk with elderly people who are lonely
and also tutor elementary school students who are slow in reading
it's very rewarding
the people who you are helping really appreciate it and it makes you feel good
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The best volunteering experiences, in my experience, are
- ones like you mention, where you are doing something individual to individual that in the big picture of the world isn't huge but makes a big difference to the individual being helped
- projects where something you know how to do can make a difference
My two favorite of mine were one in each of these. I was a volunteer on an elderly orthopedics ward in a hospital where I mostly just hung out chatting with the patients, cheering them on when they were doing their practice walking, stuff like that. I only quit doing that because my schedule changed and I couldn't do it any more along with my necessary life obligations. The other one was in a library fixing books, nothing fancy but reinforcing paperback covers and fixing spines on popular volumes so they'd last longer for more patrons to enjoy them
The volunteering that got miserable quickly was almost anything I ever ended up doing having to do with an event. There always ended up being so much jockeying for position, credit, being or appearing in charge that it usually ended up that the being able to say "we did an event for x" was more important than what having said event for x actually did for x in terms of benefit to the organization or its target group-to-help.