The Joys of Volunteering

A goal of mine post-grad school was to volunteer in the Austin community. Picture me in the summer of 2024: I was unemployed, had way too much time on my hands, and felt incredibly lonely. The community I had built over two years was no longer my day-to-day, and I hardly saw my school friends anymore. I was motivated (or perhaps desperate?) to get out of my apartment and socialize with others. More importantly, I wanted to feel a part of something again.

It was an easy Google-search to find opportunities, which led me to attend a few one-off events. However, I wanted a balance of something consistent yet not time consuming. In the fall, I signed up to be a ticket scanner at a ballet performance—and bam, I had found my perfect volunteer organization.

Since October 2024, I’ve been volunteering with Ballet Austin at all their performances. Whether it be their in-house studio performances with their academy dancers, or their full-production shows at the performance center, I am there as a ticket scanner, photo station assistant, usher, and everything in between. My favorite performances are their Nights of Community, where they provide a free, professional performance for social service workers and students with disabilities. These gigs have me feeling lucky—I get to watch free ballets after my shifts, the operations team are the kindest people to work with, and it’s a lovely experience to support an art that meant so much to me growing up. To any person looking for a community, a way to give back, or even if you have extra time on your hands that you don’t know what to do with—go volunteer.

Some joys of volunteering:

1. Helping others. How could we talk about volunteering without talking about the best part? The core of volunteering is that you’re giving back. With so many problems in the world, this can be your personal way of lessening the challenges or improving the lives of others.
2. Finding your people. This one was a big one for me. Although there were various actions I took to build up my community post-school, volunteering was one of the first and definitely the most heartwarming. You can find like-minded individuals who care about the same causes you do; you can build soft connections that improve social well-being; you may even develop some beautiful friendships out of it.
3. Grounding yourself. It’s time to humble ourselves a bit. I’m sure we all have moments where we get caught up in the day-to-day of our lives. Personally, I have a habit of letting my work consume me (a problem I am trying to tackle this year). By lending a helping hand, you realize that your problems—though valid—are not the end of the world.

I can’t remember if I had ever volunteered without there being an external motivator involved. In high school, I had mandatory volunteer hours to complete every year, along with documentation and signatures to collect along the way. In college, I was a part of a club that went to the local high school and middle schools to teach students about college, and although I deeply cared for that work, perhaps there was a touch of ambition embedded into my drive to always show up (I was president of that club my sophomore year). Now that there’s no one to listen to and no one to impress, I think I am finally appreciating the good that volunteering can bring.