It Doesn't Take Much

It doesn't take much to get me excited these days. After weeks of trying to land something, I FINALLY got "hired" as a volunteer, and I am estatic. Estatic! I will be tutoring middle school kids in an after school program, starting Monday, and I'm thrilled. Even though I tell myself that it doesn't matter that the three other volunteer jobs I applied for have not materialized, I find that, paid or not, rejection hurts. So I am thrilled to finally have "a job".

The first volunteer position I applied for, I have to admit, I turned down, because their only open volunteer time slot didn't work for me. (7:30 to 9:30 pm on Thursday nights, after which I would have a 45 minute drive through winding back roads, in the ever-changing east coast winter weather.) The second job, at a local teen center, seemed very appealing, but when I went over there, they really didn't seem to need any help and have not called me since. The third, I'm still waiting to hear back on; this one is a morning meet-and-greet at the local YMCA, which has the advantage of providing me with a free membership during my volunteer stay, a nice added bonus. But I applied weeks ago; by the time they get back to me, I'll be on my way back to CA.

I'm glad I still have my "side" job - writing for an audience, albeit a small one. No one can take this job away from me. It doesn't "end", even when I move back to CA. I can write and post from any place in the world. I don't have specific set hours. I can write about whatever subject I feel like, not about a something someone else wants me to. The pay in monetary terms is non-existent; I can't buy groceries with it. But, I love doing it and the feedback is very rewarding. The only thing that would be better would be if I got paid to do this; but then, I suppose, I might feel under pressure - deadline pressure, the pressure to write as well today as I did yesterday, the pressure to issue a certain volume of material in exchange for a predetermined amount of money in the bank. I don't know about doing that; writing for free, for a virtually limitless audience, has its own unique appeal.