Volunteering Experience 1

On Friday, I volunteered for the first time after 2021 for the first time. I am realizing that I always had an interest in volunteering, but this time when I signed up - I was thinking of giving back to the library community. I go the library so many times, read and borrow books, use restroom, get bike repaired, attend workshops and events for free - like sewing, charcoal art, bike parking, painting plant pots, Chinese calligraphy, to name some I remember on top of my head - all positive experiences. I loved how people gather to get support from the library community and always felt like giving back since I have time and the intention.

The City of Mountain View sent out an email saying this Saturday is going to be the Volunteer Fair for Fall and please take a look at the available opportunities. I clicked on the links in the list of opportunities one-by-one and checked them out. For a few days, they were lying in my open tabs and I had forgotten about them - I hadn't committed to any of them yet, because I didn't want to back-out and waste their time finding another volunteer.

The City sent out a reminder email, again sending the list of opportunities with links to the associations organizing them. Some looked hard work, training and some were out of my experience - like rabbit facility, bike repairs, and taking care of plants/ gardens.

After looking around I noticed 4 opportunities that I can rightly contribute to -

1. Library receptionist
2. Assisting at Senior center
3. Fabmo - recycling fabric
4. Local Kitchen

I signed up for all of them - filled out the application and availability for Library and Senior Center, applied for available slots for Fabmo and Local Kitchen.

After talking to ChatGPT about my feelings of volunteering or supporting religious events even though I have strong feelings of