Volunteer

We’ve been working on a really complex web application for a long time and we’re in the home stretch for a particular client. It is going very well, but despite having delivered many versions of the application to them over the last 18 months, for various reasons, they are really taking analyzing it seriously now, so there’s been a crazy amount of work. Plus, like everyone else it seems, we’re a bit short staffed. Add to that that I’ve had a sinus infection for 3 weeks.

In late December, I wrote to 826LA that I had to take January off—that I had to devote my time to my job. Then, at the end of January, I did the same for February. Now that we’re almost through February, I’m wondering if I can go in March. We have 3 new clients, I just hired a new employee, I’m still fighting the sinus infection and we’re trying to buy a house.

So, now, I ask myself, is putting my tutoring/volunteering on hold for so long a reasonable thing to do in the face of my other responsibilities, or should I have considered my 826 time to be non-negotiable and something that I just have to make time for? Am I making excuses? Or is it just that my best for now cannot include volunteering?

I love being at 826, though, I have to admit the going part became hard given the amount of work I leave in the middle of the day. I don’t know what to do.

I’ve been volunteering at 826LA for 7 months; once or twice a week, most weeks, except when they’re closed, of course (like now). I haven’t been very good about attending events - readings, concerts, happy hours - I did work one fund raiser as a bartender, but I think it was as much fun for me as anything. I got to meet Dave Eggers and I got to co-serve Fiona Apple a glass of wine. I had really lovely conversations with many people who were probably people I should have recognized but I suppose it’s just as well that I didn’t.

I have learned many things. One, I really like and admire the people involved in this project, starting with Dave Eggers, through the teachers at schools that invite us in (Roosevelt teachers ROCK!), to the volunteers and especially the tireless staff at 826LA whom I really miss when I don’t go in. I’ve also learned that I really love kids, which is good, because I’ve been continually surprised at how often they actually ask that question. When a kid meets me for the first time, they almost always ask if I like/love kids and if I have any kids of my own—so, I get to tell that that I do love kids.

Should I find myself in a position to reinvent what I do, I think teaching, volunteering, helping, somehow being involved with trying to make kids’ lives better in some small way would be a real treat.

I know, seriously, who’d have thought? Me? If you’d have told me this 10 years ago, I’d have pulled out one of my favorite lines: “Yeah, I like kids…. they taste like chicken.”

Danele (about 5 years old, I’d guess) asked me this week if I could work with her everyday. I told her that I could only come in once a week. She asked why that was and I said that it was because I had to work. She said that I should go back and tell them I quit so that I could work at 826.

It was adorable.

My first entry on this goal to do “something for somebody who isn’t me” is both accurate and totally wrong. My motivation really is to go and give my time and help out without any expectation of anything happening except hopefully a kid learning something, maybe even learning with a smile (it seems that I’m very silly). What I’m finding, as is of course predicted by the cliche, is that I’m getting more out of it than anybody.

I just finished tutoring the ELD (formerly ELL, formerly ESL) workshop. I went twice a week for 7 weeks (though I missed 2 sessions). At the end, we had an ice cream social. Some of the kids came with fresh haircuts and all dressed up. Many parents wanted to take pictures of the kids with their tutors. It was really, truly touching. I hope these kids come in for drop-in tutoring. It was sad saying goodbye.

I’ve been thinking for awhile that it is about time that I do something for somebody who isn’t me. Anna and I went to see David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell read at UCLA. They were promoting a book the proceeds of which go to support the 826 project, which is a project started by Dave Eggers in SF. There are also 826 workshops in NY and in LA. After we got back from Hawaii I went and applied to volunteer at 826LA. I was accepted and I’ve tutored a few times now. Unfortunately, drop-in tutoring finished for Summer, so I didn’t quite get my fill of that, but I’m going to be an assistant for the ELL classes this summer. I wish I had more time to go there—I love the people I’ve been meeting and the kids are great.