Volunteering: Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Kindness

There's a unique and special type of gratification I get when I do something to help others, without any expectation of personal gain. It soothes my soul and makes my heart flutter. Of course, it is crucial to be able to use your skills, experiences, and wealth to make money. However, it hits differently when you use these resources to help people without expecting anything in return. Volunteering and community service are one of the ways to help those in need- those who are struggling in one way or the other. When you volunteer to do something, you're not doing it to gain recognition (so people start calling you a good person); you're not also doing it to get paid or expect anything in return. Your sole motivation is to put a smile on someone’s face. It is important to note that, by volunteering to make someone else happy, you're in turn making yourself happy, and this sense of fulfillment comes naturally.

Today’s Hive learners’ prompts ask us the last time we volunteered to help others. Volunteering is not just about using your money to make people happy. There are so many other ways to do this; whether it is with skills, experiences, or just doing a thing for the community as simple as clearing a path where people work or picking the dirt on the street. Growing up, I remember how my siblings and I would go to church every Saturday morning to clean the church premises. We would clear the bushes, clean the chairs, and remove cobwebs. No one forced us to do these things, we volunteered to do them simply because we wanted to. Volunteering to help others has been a part of me since my childhood days- I believe this was influenced by my mom.

The last time I volunteered to help someone was last month- it was during exams. As a final-year student, I have juniors who often approach me for explanations and materials. The fact that I have passed 3 levels means I have a better understanding of the courses and experiences with each lecturer. So, it is only natural for the juniors to meet their seniors for materials and advice during exams. Last month, I had 6 tough papers and was pulling up all-nighters in preparation for them. After my first paper, I went home to rest a bit. I got a call from a friend- my junior. She told me that they were having Phonology- a course that deals with sounds, the next day and that she didn't know anything about it. Phonology is one of the most difficult courses at her level. It gets to a point where you start to see mathematical equations in English. The first time I encountered a phonological question, I thought it was mathematics, because tell me whaare plus and minus signs doing in the English language?



She told me that she and her friend were scared of the course. They had been in school all day, jumping from one tutorial to another, but they didn't seem to understand anything. Considering how stressed I was and how I still needed to rest to continue the all-nighter, I could have declined and rested. But I thought about the situation well and prioritized their needs above mine. I asked myself these questions; “if I don’t help these guys, who will? How would they feel if I turned them down? Their exam is barely in the next 24 hours, how would they go about it?” After weighing these questions, I concluded that I would sacrifice my rest and help them out.

When they came to my hostel, I didn't get around the bush. I skipped all the intros and jumped into the real deal. Instead of starting from the beginning; giving them the introduction of the course and definition of terms, I skipped them and started teaching them the practical aspect, since that's what came out during our exams. I knew that if I loaded them with too much information, they wouldn't understand, so I filtered out the unnecessary ones. After teaching them the practical questions, we solved some past questions together. After teaching them for more than 3 hours, I knew I had played my part well. They went home to practice more questions.

I was super excited when I found out that most of the things we treated came out during their exam. The exact past questions we treated were repeated. When they got home, they couldn't stop expressing their gratitude to me for helping them out. Thanks to me, they did the exam well. Before I taught them, they didn't know anything about that course, but after my tutorial, they learnt a lot and came out smiling. I hope their results come out well.

Volunteering to help them really made me feel happy and yes, it is something I plan to do again if the opportunity comes knocking.

Thanks for reading