Working on more than just my sweet bod

I don’t know why I put things off for so long. It’s literally been years since I first started looking into different volunteer work opportunities and still I haven’t done anything about it. I know (almost) everyone has those thoughts that they should be doing something more with their time, and really most of us should. Especially those of us who are single, have no children, and a decent job. I have the time, now I just need to find where to focus my energy.

On and off over the years, whenever the urge hits to do something decent, I’ve done research. I’ve found a few different organizations that stood out to me but I’ve never contacted them or taken it any further than internet research. Until today. This afternoon I contacted two local agencies for more information on their volunteer programs, not only did I fill out the online form, but I wrote personalized emails to each expressing my interest.

One position would be as a volunteer outreach worker for homeless kids, and the other is with CASA. CASA’s are court appointed advocates for kids. From what I can tell so far it’s a lot of gathering of information about the child’s situation. You speak with everyone involved in the case. Get to know the family, the teachers, the doctors, the other support workers, and you write reports for the court. It seems to me to be a position invented to pick up where our failing DSS system has left off. I want to do this. I can’t even express how much I want to do this. It’s even a little bit selfish because it’ll be as much for my own good as for anyone else’s. I have too much time to focus on myself and I think it makes me crazy. Plus, with my history working with teens in the group home, and all the bullshit that I see on a daily basis with my current job at the addiction treatment facility, it will be a good place to focus and channel all the negativity I pick up at work every day into something positive.

I’m excited. It’s time I stopped thinking about doing this and actually got off my ass and did something.

I’ll keep you updated.