10 Reasons to Volunteer

 

My first volunteering life started four years ago when I finished school. I knew i wanted to volunteer but if someone had asked me would I volunteer after 4 years, I would probably say – NO! Come on now – when you graduate from University, you must most probably be employed already, at least have your own business and think about creating a family! At least this is what I was thinking when I was 18. What do I think now? I was completely wrong and I will try to give 10 reasons why volunteer abroad!

1. New country – New people. Sometimes you feel like you are fed up with your own community, your own city, the people you live with and you really need a whole new place to relax, to think about your future, you need some new people in your life in order to run away from your everyday routine life and enjoy some youth life. EVS truly gives you an opportunity to live in a new country (even somewhere you always wished to live, like Spain, Italy, Germany etc.) You get to meet new people, work in a completely new environment, make new friends and so on. Who knows what may happen after the EVS? After all, people are the ones who change our lives everyday.
2. Travel Travel Travel – Traveling if the best when you are young and I’m sure we all agree on this. What’s more, learning is more fun while traveling. We agree on this too! So go ahead and travel!! EVS is the best opportunity to go out there and explore the magical places of the world. I have been in Lithuania for a month and have almost visited most of the important sights starting from Vilnius and Trakai castle ended with the beautiful view of Bebrusu Dvaras. No idea about these places? Come to Lithuania, you’ll love these places.
3. Enhance your skills – the best thing about volunteering is that you do what you like to do and at the same time you are constantly enhancing your skills in a certain field. Let’s say, I always loved photoshop and did some work in it before coming to EVS, but now, I am slowly but successfully learning to create professional type of posters. Oh my god, I would have never imagined that I would be able to create a logo without someone teaching me to do it. It may sound very simple to some people, but for me it is very important. In the end of my EVS program, I’m planning to be a professional photoshop guy. I hope one year is completely enough for his.
4. Become more independent – in my everyday life it was very common to see my mom preparing food for me after I was coming home from school. She was the one who cooked everyday, washed my clothes, woke me up everyday etc. what happens now? I do it all by myself and I’m proud of it. I have exceptionally enhanced my cooking skills, I finally know how to use a washing machine for different clothes, I know I have to change my bed sheet every two weeks at least and so on and so on. EVS lets you become so much more independent which finally leads you to know yourself better. In a situation like this, you realize you have to take care of yourself every day and day by day you learn more and more.
5. Become popular – yes yes yes! I live in the city of Marjampole and I bet everyone knows that there are two Georgians (yes I’m from Georgia…from the country of Georgia though, not the state) in the town and guess what?! It really feels good to be special. Especially if you live in a small community where everyone knows each other. I’m sure it would not feel the same if I lived in Vilnius. I have already been invited to a few places just because I speak a different language!! For example, a few days ago I was asked to attend an event in one of the city schools and in front of students speak my own language!! Ahh, I must say Lithuanians are absolutely gorgeous. I love them and hope they love me too.
6. Party everyday! – not everyday of course, but once a week at least! Life would be so boring without parties, right? You don’t have to go to clubs or pubs all the time to have fun. Trust me, you can get some drinks, invite your friends and neighbors, get cosy in your warm apartment (remember, I’m in Lithuania!!) and enjoy! It’s Europe baby, have fun!
7. Learn a new language – I know what you are thinking about now: “Why should I learn Lithuanian, or Latvian, or Czech, or Slovenian?? I will never need these languages in my life”. Of course you would prefer to learn Spanish, French, enhance your English skills, but seriously? Lithuanian language? Ok, listen up guys: it’s really cool! How many foreign people do you know who speak Lithuanian? Plus sometimes it really feels cool to understand what people are talking about! Who knows, you may continue your life in Lithuania after the EVS and this time you will for sure need the language. and it’s not only about Lithuanian. The same may be said about every other language spoken in the country you volunteer. Learn the language and become even more popular in your local community.
8. A better CV – if you have a poor CV, it’s the best opportunity to build a new one. If you don’t know how to build a CV at all, people at the organization you will be volunteering at will surely help you to create one. EVS will let you discover all the skills you have, get a lot of experience and make your CV even richer.
9. Help the community – you are given a very rare chance to contribute to the development of a whole new community. You can make the environment better than it was before your arrival and people really feel it! You are allowed to change the environment and implement a lot of social activities for the locals which will finally lead to a closer ties between you and the people of the city.
10. FOOD FOOD FOOD!! – and at last, I hope we agree that nothing happens if you are hungry. There are millions of types of food in the world and you are given a chance to taste them during your volunteering time. In the beginning you may have some difficulties with getting used to a different taste of food (because even water tastes differently in different countries) but you will get used to it in a week or two and voila – you will enjoy the local food more than you ever imagined.