WayneS

From about year 9, I knew what I wanted to study and what I wanted to be. I wanted to study history, and I wanted to be a journalist, a radio phone-in presenter, or a politician. Years 10 and 11 went smoothly, as did college. I felt that I only had to get through university, and then I would have the career I wanted.

University didn’t work out, and I left after just six weeks. My departure put an end to my career plans. Now, I was willing to accept what ever job I could do. I searched job sites with no success, and that made me feel even worse. It was as if my life had hit a dead end.

I had been through worse, but at that time, I felt that I had nothing to live for, even though I had my wife. I passed time by listening to depressing songs like “Leave out All the Rest” by Linkin Park, and thinking depressing thoughts, much to the irritation of my wife.

One day I found out that a group of local organisations that serve deaf or blind people in my local area wanted to create a website on which they could promote themselves. They had just begun planning the website. I thought “all I have to do is express my opinions on what to put on a website? Easy! I could do that”.

That’s how I became involved in the voluntary sector. One of the organisations was very new. It needed new committee members. Within a few months, I was helping to manage that organisation, having never managed an organisation before. I was even managing the organisation’s internet content, even though I’d never managed an organisation’s internet content.

Most of my voluntary work has involved me doing things for the first time. I co-ordinated an IT training project which taught blind people how to use computers, having never recruited volunteers, taught blind people how to use computers, or taught volunteers how to use computers. Before I started moderating chat sessions for TheSite.org, I had never been in a chat room. I didn’t think I’d be able to use a chat room.

When I was eighteen and younger, I had never thought about volunteering, managing websites for organisations, being on committees, running IT training sessions, moderating chat sessions, or even writing blogs on what people should do if they hit a dead end.

You don’t need to spend years studying to become a volunteer. You don’t have to have lots of experience to be a volunteer. If you have failed your exams or lost your job, that doesn’t have to mean you’ve hit a dead end. Even if you cannot have the career you wanted, you could have an exciting, interesting and enjoyable career or role you had never considered.

Of course, volunteering doesn’t have to be a career, but doing voluntary work you’d never thought of doing could help you gain valuable experience and could inspire you. It could lead to you doing a job you never thought of doing or you never thought you could do.

Find out which organisations in your area you could help, by going to Do-it, choosing an interest, and typing in your postcode. If you choose all interests, you might find something you’d like to try, but hadn’t considered before. I always choose all interests, and that’s how I discovered TheSite.org.