Volunteering 101

At some point in life, we start asking ourselves questions, and one of the most frequent questions we encounter is : “ Did I do anything, so far, to make someone else’s life better?”, I asked a lot of people and in most cases, the answer was “No” or “Maybe”, because our schedules are all about our own success, our own motivations, our selfish goals, but how about we get into some physics law and re-schedule our life a little bit.
Physics law says that if you put a force on something, this object will give you the same force back, the action reaction effect, and lucky we are, our life works the exact same way, if some wants to be happy, they should try other things than searching for it because rather than being a lost object, it is something that is planted within us, inside our own hearts, our own souls.
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The people who answered “Yes” to my question had something special, they were satisfied , relaxed and happy, so we jumped to another question which is “ Why are you happy?”, and they answered “ because my happiness depends on others’ smiles.” and to experience the same feeling as them, I got involved into an association.
In this article, i’ll be giving you five benefits of volunteering :

1- Self-Development :

With all the technology around us, we barely have a life outside, and sometimes, we find ourselves socially awkward, so volunteering helps you erase this feeling, because interacting with others will help you develop a sense of debate, public speaking and it will help you get through the “shy” mode, you get to meet others, open yourself to the world but mostly, you get to know yourself, discover the way you think about some topics, the way you respond to some situations, you meet your limits, you test yourself by confronting it to the outside world .

2- Awareness :

Some people never notice what goes around them, but by volunteering, participating to events that involves nature, humans, animals… others in general, the person will take time to appreciate what’s around them, what they have.
When you meet people you probably never met before, when you hear stories you never heard before, when you see things you never seen before, that is when you start understanding that everything has a cause, everything has a reason, you become amazed by everything, and you wonder about everyone and everything you see, you start asking yourself “ Why?”, because you suddenly want to know about it, about them about his or her story, you want to meet the outside world and that is when you become aware of the potential that each one holds inside themselves, including your own.

3- Team work :

An African proverb says : “ alone, we go faster , but together , we go further “ ,believe me, this proverb is as accurate as the theory about the earth spinning : no one really feels it instantly and yet, time is here to remind us about it, so at an association, you may
tell yourself “ what’s the purpose of having all this bunch of people doing the work? “ and you don’t realize how much you helped each other until the work is done

4- Commitment :

We do things, we plan trips, agendas, visits, we schedule everything in our life, no matter how, and some people decide that in between all the living they try to make, some space must be left for the people who can’t live the way they do, and the moment we start deciding to give our time, our energy, our holidays, our money, our smiles to the others is the day we start making a change, it’s the day we commit to who we truly are, the day we commit to the human we are, to the humanity inside of us.

When you decide, by your own self, that today you will go outside and help the homeless man you always see on your way to school, work or at the bus station, when you decide to give a part of you to a person you never knew, when the day comes and you finally DECIDE, well, that is the day you finally start your life , ask yourself : “ Am I truly willing to change someone’s life ?”

5- Appreciation :

You learn, with time, that the best moments will never leave your memory, because the best moments are the ones you create , the best memories are the ones in which you have put heart, soul and sweat to accomplish , just picture it : seeing a boy with sparkling eyes like a night sky, a smile tracing along his face, showing every tooth, between his lips escapes a ‘thank you’ as you hand him the very first toy he ever had.
you just created a moment he will never forget, a memory he will tell his grand children as he will buy for them their first toy too, he will tell them about how good it is to be generous, to be selfless, and you created to yourself something to be proud of, a memory you will tell your grand children as you will buy for them their first toy, you will tell them how good it feels to get this little sign of happiness drawn on people’s face, how good it feels to know you've done something for someone, you never knew, that probably changed their view about the world, about a nation, a religion, a country, about the people you belong to.
You learn to appreciate the little fragments of time, the little fragments of life, and those fragments will help you build your own happiness .





                                                                              Sabrine Bouras.