My therapist is away for four weeks now and in the meantime I'm supposed to do something to address my isolation. Specifically, I'm supposed to do some voluntary work. One of the nice things about having developed a pretty good relationship with my therapist is the ability to admit that I was talking bollocks the previous week. I came up with lots of excuses why I can't do this stuff. And I realised that's what they were. So we had a talk about what I'd figured out during the week about that and what to do about it.
The unhelpful thought I laid to rest was the one that went: "I never really learned how to be social, therefore I'm clueless about making friends, which is why I don't." Sure, I had problems with being social when I was a kid, but I'm not a social cripple in that way.
So now we have a slightly more helpful thought: "I'm OK at social stuff, but I'm not able to take relationships past a certain point because I keep people at a distance. I don't know how to stop doing that yet."
I have to work out what kind of voluntary work I want to do. It needs to be something I don't have to commit to very fully. I don't know how it'll work out, so I don't want to use up some organisation's training time if I'm not going to be around that long. A few hours one day a week is about enough for me at the moment.
We also talked a bit about how my scars affect how people see me. I've pretty much made the decision that I'm not interested in hiding them now. It's still kind of intimidating thinking about having them visible to people who I'll be around on an ongoing basis. It's a bit of a Catch 22 situation. Hide them and there's this big secret I'm not talking about. Show them and there's this big issue nobody's talking about. Talk about them and there's this uncomfortable topic I've inflicted on people. Still, I think that me appearing comfortable with them will go some way to making other people OK with them. I think I'll be OK dealing with any questions that are raised.
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Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 12:41 am under
Volunteering .
I think I have found the perfect volunteer opportunity, if they will take me on. . As long as I can get my head around the sales aspect of it (which has always been a bugbear of mine - I like to tell people of all the great things to see and do in Vancouver and BC regardless of if the particular company/tour operator/hotel is paying for us to promote them), I think I'd be perfect at it. I love meeting people from all different backgrounds, I love showing off Vancouver, I love helping people to enjoy themselves and I'm very good at researching questions people ask of me (in fact I'm far better at that than any of the Visitor Counsellors I've ever met in this country).
If you are a successful applicant you go through some serious training and orientation:
"All volunteers are required to complete a mandatory 3-day provincial certification training program called Tourism Visitor Information Counsellor training.
During this training, volunteers receive an introduction to Tourism Vancouver's customer service expectations, a review of a variety of travel counseling tools, and an orientation to the various aspects of the visitor centres. Following this classroom style training volunteers receive additional on-site orientation as well as 1-day Superhost training. After the completion of 40 hours of on-site counseling experience volunteers receive a performance evaluation which is the final step in completing the requirements of Tourism Visitor Information Counsellor Certification.
In addition to the initial training, in-house workshops and member product familiarization tours are organized as part of Tourism Vancouver's commitment to on-going training and product knowledge development."
The only problem is that because they spend so much time training you, you need you to commit for 4 hours a week for a minimum of a year, which sounds very doable but when you are working full-time that means you have 4 hours sheared off your weekend every single week, making it extremely difficult to go away for the weekend and explore! I'm going to have to contact them to see if there are any options for me to do evening shifts instead. I thoroughly doubt it, though, so maybe Saturday mornings are doable - if I can get out by 12.30 then I haven't lost that much of the weekend and can still go on camping trips etc.
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Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 4:47 am under
Volunteering .
One of the people who inspired me to start this blog is a songwriter by the name of Bob Franke. I had been introduced to Bob's music through probably one of the most important singer-songwriters of this era- David Wilcox. Bob has written a few articles for songwriters- check his site out for more details.
In one of the articles, Bob talks about how songwriters should get involved with their communities- and I don't believe that he's talking just about music communities. He's talking about the community as a whole. There are plenty of Non-Profit Organizations that need help out there. There are music-industry organizations that wouldn't mind getting some expertise in planning events, or general Non-Profits who could use some help in their offices or whatever their specific need is.
I've tried this out and so far, it has opened up my eyes to new possibilities and a more positive spin on life. Make-A-Wish Foundation was one that I was exposed to as a teenager, as my parents' Hallmark store used to donate balloons for the wishes granted- so it was natural for me to get in contact with them. I have so far volunteered for two events and it has been such a great experience!
So- if you're wondering what to do when you're not writing and doing your day job and you like getting out- doing something for others as well as being around some very inspirational people, check out volunteering for a cause or two. You never know, your volunteer efforts might just inspire your next song!
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Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 7:46 pm under
Volunteering .
One of my goals is to be more active in my community. I googled volunteering in Fremont. The City of Fremont's website had a link to . What is that you say? Well, it's like but instead of matching you with a potential mate, this site <> matches you with different organizations to volunteer at in your area. I think it's a great site to check out if you're looking to volunteer but don't know where to start.
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Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 7:31 am under
Volunteering .
The has a nice opinion piece on the secret to successful volunteering. The answer... whether it be politics or anything else, volunteer for something you enjoy.
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Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 1:00 am under
Volunteering .
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Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 12:41 am under