Whoa! I can't believe that the month of July just flashed by! July was a busy month for me and the blog: my family got back from a trip to Hong Kong & Macau, I shared with you my law school app essay about misusing handicap placards, I reminisced about all the ridiculous shenanigans I got myself into in middle school, wrote a goofy poem for the younger O.I.'ers heading back to elementary school, the facebook page now has 241 fans, and Perfectly Imperfecta was featured in Thriving - the Children's Hospital Boston pediatric blog... phew!
Before we close July officially I'd like to share the top post for this month in case you missed it!
Volunteering to Out-Prove my Disability?
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| Me in the 5th gr & my reading buddy, Nina. |
I also enjoyed the fact that although I was a kid who might be the same size as a Kindergartner, and might have still needed to be pushed on the "baby" swings - it was possible to have someone else look up to me. More than that though I was also able to help this other person share in an activity that I loved so dearly. While it's quite some time ago and I can't remember how it exactly all made me feel, I imagine that I felt important, purposeful, and for once - I probably enjoyed the feeling of being able to offer someone else help as opposed to it always being the other way around. For a ten or eleven year old kid who was always the only one in her school in a wheelchair, that last feeling was huge.
And so it began: I grew to want and love helping others.
As I grew older I volunteered at Special Olympics, sang at retirement homes, and tutored younger students. Though I never really consciously thought about it at the time, I am sure that a part of my drive for volunteering began with wanting to "prove something" to others. I'm not sure if it was ever just one thing I was trying to prove, but here are a few that come to mind:
1. I don't need as much help as some people might think I do
2. That I have something to offer to society
3. I don't expect to always be on the receiving end of assistance in society
In college I became more involved in volunteering on a different level. During this time I actually avoided one-on-one volunteering opportunities (i.e. feeding the homeless, doing a shift at a food pantry, or helping underprivileged girls find the right prom dress). At the time I wasn't sure if I really believed that those efforts "worked" or made any "real" dent in the larger-scale issues like poverty or homelessness. But more importantly I avoided those opportunities because I wasn't sure who I was yet. I still felt that I had something to PROVE about being disabled while being able to help other people, I just wasn't sure what it was! I didn't believe that I could offer anything to people in those situations (because they were so different from my own), and instead focused my student-run club (Students for Social Justice) on spreading awareness on bigger picture topics. We invited guest speakers to campus, had discussions after we watched documentaries, or went to protests. I still loved helping others, and at each club meeting or event I was fired up and motivated by my passion to educate others on the issues.
The months and weeks leading up to graduation I had a lot of big decisions to make. I was swamped with finals, law school scholarship applications, trying to decide whether or not I wanted to go straight into law school, or if I should continue figuring out what it was I wanted to help others with. Because law school is such an expensive and mentally intensive commitment I figured that if I was uncertain about it then I probably shouldn't force myself to go. So instead of going straight into grad school I opted to do a year of service with AmeriCorps. I wanted to figure out how I could best serve, in what areas of society, and with what populations; law school I knew would always be there waiting for me.
After too many AmeriCorps applications and researching programs I decided to go with an AmeriCorps Mass Mentoring program - this is a corp of (mostly) young people who serve in mentoring programs throughout the state of Massachusetts. Why did I choose the area of mentoring? I have been incredibly lucky to have many mentors in my life. Because I was the only one in my family who was disabled and had many different interests from the rest of my family members, I always sought out mentors to help me in things that I was interested in or struggled with. I recognized that I would not have gotten to where I am today without my mentors and also realized that many students fall between the cracks and miss out on meeting that important connection to another adult in their life. So for an entire year I spent developing a mentoring program for 18-24 year olds at a local community college in Boston!
The work was exhausting and I was frequently frustrated but what kept me going was that similarly to my love for reading, I truly believed in the importance and effectiveness of mentoring. I knew that if I could only have ONE student go through the mentoring program having had a positive experience, and understanding the importance of having a mentor in his or her life then I would be successful.
That was last year, and now a year later I have a better sense of the population I know I can best serve and why it is important for me to work in that area. But what I think is most important to me is that I have come to understand that I will always continue offering assistance to others, but it won't be because I have "something to prove" - now it's because there will always be something in my life that I love (whether it's a way of life, an activity, some issue I am passionate about, or a hobby) and want to share this with someone else.
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| This is the group of AmeriCorps Ambassadors of Mentoring I worked with! |
Tips on Volunteering:
- A common misconception is that many volunteering positions may require a lot of physical labor. This isn't true at all!
- I have found that volunteer programs and coordinators are some of the most open-minded and accommodating groups of people that I have ever worked with or come across
- Many states will allow you to be involved in a volunteer program while receiving a stipend. These stipends usually do not conflict with the disability benefits that you may be currently receiving
- Whatever your reason for volunteering just remember that you might not get out of the experience what you were expecting. Most of the time when I have been involved in volunteering my perceptions of situations or people have changed, and for the better!
- Know that during an interview or screening for a volunteer position - you are never required and nor should you ever feel that you have to reveal the specifics of your disability
- I have come to find that while volunteering the relationship is one of the greatest moments in my life and in society when the playing field is leveled. No one is judging, staring, or making awkward comments about you - it's always only about the service or help that you are providing!
