Aug. 23rd- BUILD YOUR RESUME

Alex
Aug. 23

I’m not thrilled about the new volunteering gig but it looks good on a resume. I volunteered as a teen and always wanted to help more… but I never had time. That’s my excuse anyways. Then I saw an advertisement for volunteer opportunities with the headline “BUILD YOUR RESUME.” I should be embarrassed that a major inspiration to volunteer is to help myself find work, but the job market is cut throat and I don’t have the experience required to get the “entry level” positions. I guess a high GPA and great interviews aren’t enough anymore.

I looked through the volunteer sites on the BUILD YOUR RESUME webpage and decided to try an old folks home. They’re adults, how hard could they be to babysit? Ha. I met two of the residents a couple of months ago at a street market and they won me over with their “get off my lawn” attitude. I wanted to see Richard and Ellen again and this was my chance. I shot an email to the program coordinator, Julie, and thought about some good oldey-timey jokes to tell to the residents: “What’s the surest sign your son has something on his mind? He’s wearing a hat,” and “Roses are grey, violets are grey, tulips are grey because I’m a dog” are my new icebreakers.

I woke up on Saturday via an ice-cold shower and jumped in the car to head to the old folks home. I got to the dining room and looked for Julie, the volunteer coordinator. A tall twenty-something with long brown hair is what her email told me. None of the women there were tall but I saw a chick with brown hair who looked like she was in charge and tried to catch her eye. She looked up then looked away quickly. This happened twice before she scuttered out of the room. I went to the hall to find someone in charge and saw Richard and Ellen, the awesome couple I had met two months ago. They recognized me and we caught up for a bit. Richard was wonderfully grumpy just as I remembered and Ellen had to interrupt half his sentences to giggle out an apology to whomever Richard was talking about. “Is that your group?” Ellen asked when she saw a young group heading into the kitchen. It was.

I went in the kitchen and jumped in an assembly line. I got the spot next to the young woman who looked away whenever she saw me. Lucky me. I tried to make small talk but she was was as quiet as she was cute. I’m not 90 so I didn’t ask about the weather, instead I asked where she was from– even quiet people can talk about that. She somehow even made that awkward. About all I learned about her was that she was indeed Julie the volunteer coordinator, she didn’t have any tattoos on her hands or face, and she was from Seattle.

I went home after packing the meals and promised myself I would learn more about Julie next week.