i wish i could define my life by this: .unconditional love. please fill me with love so that it may flow actively into everyone around me. i want to learn to love like You.
I was donating some stuff to the local homeless shelter and I asked the woman about any volunteer opportunities she had. She said that she had one to help run the freight station museum. This museum functions off of volunteers only, there are no paid positions. The homeless shelter had the opportunity to run the museum for a day to receive any proceeds that came in for that day. Carol, the person in charge of the service project said that she could use like 7-8 volunteers for that day. With about 70 people in my class, I figured I could get about 7 people since I was definitely volunteering. So I sent an e-mail to the school of nursing office and asked them to forward it to all the nursing students 2 weeks ago...it never happened. I tried once again. And then once more. And they NEVER forwarded the e-mail for me OR e-mailed me back. I finally figured out how to send the e-mail myself but instead of to the whole nursing body, just to the 70 people in my class. No one responded. And now this service opportunity is Satuday. And I have a friend volunteering a few hours for me out of pity I'm sure and another girl who probably just wants to help. So I was talking to my friend about it and she says that she was hanging out with some nursing girls last night and they just didn't feel that the service opportunity applied to the school of nursing. How ridiculous is that. She was trying to explain to me that they may be more inclined to volunteer if it was nursing related.
So I told her that nursing is a profession to help their patients. Patients are regular people. Student nurses don't only need to volunteer at the hospital, etc. Volunteering to help in the community is not just for our pleasure and our gain. The heart of volunteering is to help, not to get something out of it for ourselves or in return. The volunteer opportunity I had was a great way for us to help the homeless in our community. I was shocked that they wanted to help me think of "more nursing related" ideas. It upset me to think that these student nurses didn't have the heart to help people without anything just for the sake of it not being of their interest, or volunteering at the fright station museum wouldn't be "fun." They are missing the point completely. I can't believe that they could even have a discussion about this without anyone intervening. And the my friend started to tell me that since the woman hosting the service opportunity moved the date or service to sooner than planned, that wasn't our fault and that the responsibility shouldn't fall on me. That I should just call her up and tell her that I won't have enough people because that wasn't my problem. The problem is that it is in TWO DAYS. How could I do that? I'd rather just tell her that only 2 of the nursing students could make it and help her out as much as I can. I feel that everyone should volunteer in the community out of love and to make things better for other people. We can't just sit back and say "that's not my responsibility." It makes me mad how ignorant and selfish some people can be, nontheless future nurses. I apologize for my harsh words because I am angry. But if you can't take a few hours out of your day to help strangers with nothing, how are you going to treat your patients? Are you going to expect something in return?
I hope to meet more people who love others more and care less about themselves.
I would like to love others more. People tell me that I am a nice person, but I have a bazillion doubts. No one can see my thoughts and feelings about other people. I wish I could purify my feelings and make my thoughts the root of my actions. Then, I will be more genuine. Too often I say what I mean but don't say what I think.
