I see 20’s as a never ending circle of chances. You are old enough to take responsibility, but young enough to have the time to do everything. You know enough to see directions, but have so many chances that you can try all the crazy little things.I see 20’s as a chance to discover who we are, what we want to be and do in the future, develop, try and many others. I observed people around me changing from one week to another under the influence of the so many experiences they had. I saw within myself the impact of people, moments, activities, words and so many others.
In my 20’s, I chose volunteering.
I looked at my colleagues struggling between college and jobs because of either money or professional experience. I never blamed them. There were times when a little extra money would have meant going with my friends on a trip, which I didn’t. There were also moments when I found myself panicked into not being able to find a job cause I do not have enough experience.
But I still chose volunteering. Looking back, it is still the best decision I took for who I am.
Volunteering is basically a job.
It takes time and effort and dedication. The fundamental difference is that you are not getting paid. But this, for me, was also a plus. We are raised to believe that success and job satisfaction are defined by financial factors — more money. This is why we see people struggling with well paid, but unsatisfactory jobs, trying to meet some social standards dictated from outside. Volunteering in your 20s, giving your time, effort, expertise without being paid shows you that being truly happy with your work matters just as much, maybe more. Choosing to work without being paid is choosing something based on what brings you satisfaction, what satisfies your curiosity and interests, what, at the end of the day, gives you energy and motivation, rather than constantly running for money. Especially at an age where you can leave with less and just be more.
Volunteering is education.
There are skills, information and facts I never learned in school or college but I did from the work I did in the organisation. Don’t get me wrong; I am more than satisfied with what formal education taught me in my field. However, both life and career mean more than specific knowledge. Soft skills such as leadership, networking, management, teamwork, I grasped all of those outside school and can use them today in every field I want to approach.
What is the difference between what I learned there and what I would have been able to learn from an internship in terms of skills? Volunteering gives you freedom to experience. Working in a company gives you, without any doubt, an extremely valuable opportunity, but coming with certain rules, limitations, constraints in terms of what you can do. I didn’t. I had the freedom to learn a bit of everything without being constrained within a certain department. I had the freedom to try a lot more, even if it was outside of my jurisdiction. But most important, I had the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. Too many times, I feel we are pressured to be flawless in our work from day 1. It is understandable. Yet, when you are in your 20s, growing means making mistakes, reflecting and learning to become better from them. Asking a 20 something at their first jobs to be perfect is both unrealistic and unproductive for the process of becoming that young people need. So, as grateful as I am for what school taught, I have gained much more from the time and patience my organisation gave me to make mistakes and experience what I am good at in my own way.
Volunteering is about people.
I studied social sciences and from as long as I know myself, I know that I will work for and with people. So learning the basis of human contact was essential for my future profession. Being a volunteer was an excellent way of doing so. While being a volunteer, you find yourself in so many diverse social contexts, with people so different from you. While volunteering, you have to think about the ones who benefit from your work, to put yourself in their position and think about what they need more than what you think is needed. This teaches you empathy. While volunteering, there will be times when others have a different opinion than you do. Not good. Not bad. Just different. This teaches you acceptance. While volunteering you will hear ideas that are more efficient or alternatives more suitable. This teaches you compromise. And most important, while volunteering you find people with the same purposes and vision, people you will work with, but not only. They will teach you teamwork, but also friendship.
I could have had a job. I would have had a little more money and a specialised work experience. I decided not to.
I decided to find energy in what I do, rather than in how much I earn.
I decided to give myself time to learn from my mistakes and experience what I do not like or do not know to find out what I am good at. I decided to invest my becoming years in developing not only professional, but lifelong essential skills. I decided to volunteer in my 20s and it is the decision I thank myself for.