Jennysha's job log: 5
Jennysha Patel
- March 2009.
The story so far… Jennysha graduated two years ago, and it was a while before she figured out what she wanted to do. She is now looking for ways into publishing.
The butterfly effect
When things aren’t going so well and you are feeling down, everything seems awful. You seriously can feel solace in the idea of the world opening up and just swallowing you whole so you can avoid all of your problems. Every little thing turns from a molehill into a mountain. You miss the bus, you hear a negative comment, you find your favourite sandwich has been sold out and have to settle for something which you know will make your lunch and rest of the afternoon just terrible. You don’t even want to comprehend the bigger problems in the world of poverty, global warming, war and anything else humans are doing to destroy themselves and their planet. What hope is there?
For those of you who have read my blog before, you may notice that I am trying to make change for the better this year. So far, so good. Although, I have felt a little up/down the last week. Awkward home and work life makes me long for my own space, silence and company and I have been slipping into my old angry and negative train of thinking and acting. At times like these, I try to remind myself of people, living and dead, who accomplished great things or even strangers I met in a shop or saw on the street that smiled or said something nice to me, which restored a little hope in humanity for me. Little acts of kindness can cause a butterfly effect whereby more and more people pass on gifts of their goodwill and this is how change is made possible. I truly think this is and will be a great year. There are signs everywhere. Of course, I cannot fail to mention Obama when talking about change. He is the ambassador for it after all, and hopefully he will deliver and change the politics game in a good way.
Lend a hand
Despite conversations these days being centred on ‘recession’, ‘credit crunch’ and the ‘current climate’, I am confident that people will find ways to deal. That’s the great thing about people and the human spirit; we are able to adapt. You know what they say: if it doesn’t kill you, it will only make you stronger. I think we are far stronger than we give ourselves credit for. It is situations like the one we are facing that show us what we are truly capable of. Personally, I feel that we need to pull together; resurrect community spirit - support one another and go back to basics instead of thinking ‘each man for himself’ and competing against one another. We simply need to help each other out.
I get this feeling of solidarity when I volunteer. I have been volunteering since my second year at university. I had a breakthrough in my first year when I realised I was not a typical student, going out clubbing and making friends as easily as I wished I would. I vowed to join a club or society to meet people and do something worthwhile during my time at university, in addition to studying, so that I would have something to look back on and be proud of. I found this in volunteering. I participated in one-off activities such as a charity car wash and was also involved in regular ongoing volunteering like weekly paired reading with local primary school children. I have always wanted to help people and ‘make a difference’ and volunteering really enabled me to fulfil these aspirations. My CV didn’t do too badly from this set-up either.
Feel the effect
It’s so much more than that, though. I would recommend volunteering to everyone; whether as part of a formal organisation or informally, helping someone you know to do something that is important to them. It’s such a great process in that everyone is happy. The organisation you are helping benefits from your time and so do the people on the receiving end (i.e. the service users) and whether you want it to or not, you gain personally. It brings me down to earth and makes everything real.
At present, I volunteer for Torch Trust for the Blind. They are a Christian organisation providing services and resources for blind and visually impaired persons. I found out about them when surfing the net for opportunities. I proof-listen talking books which are put into the Torch library ready to be borrowed by the service users. When I went to visit them initially last summer at their headquarters in Market Harborough in Leicestershire, I felt the warmest welcome. Since then I feel this wonderful sense of peace and worth, knowing that the work that I do for them means so much to the people who use these resources. I like the way it makes me feel: it makes me feel good.
Read my previous job logs
Suggestions to editorial@prospects.ac.uk
| 
