Service Learning III

Helping out with a Bone Marrow Drive, that was the last of my service learning for class but certainly not my last volunteer job. Spending a good five hours there was actually pretty enjoyable the people I was working with had a lot of energy, too much in fact, but I wasn't there to criticize them. I was there to learn how I can grow as a leader and ultimately a person. For the drive I was pretty much the first one there and one of the lasts to leave and I realize I only need three hours but I wasn't doing it just for the hours, I did it for the people who needed my help. So, I set my priorities straight and decided in that time frame I had nothing that important to do, I would stay and help. Helping out I moved tables and chairs but I also interacted with donators and looked over a form that they needed to fill out. After they filled the form I was the one who checked it, to clear them for the chance to donate. Dealing with people of all ages and personalities, in a situation where I wasn't the one in charge was different to say the least. Some people would act as it was my fault or try to blame me. Learning from the director I tried to control the situation, so after biting back my tongue I listened and responded in a professional way. Throughout the day I was looking for something I can look towards on to improve on as a leader then sometime after lunch when people kept wanting to talk to me I realized that I need to work on keeping others focused. I can control myself and get something done but I didn't realize that some people need extra help to get on tract and stay there. In order for me to kept them going I used encouragement and started the project with them then I would leave to go do other thing then come back after awhile to help them and gradually they needed me less and less. Now, I realize they are more effective ways for other people to help them but then in that moment I just reverted back to the "Let's do it together method" because it was comfortable.  Now that I know I need to use more diverse styles on helping others, in future situations I hope to realize this and try them out. Some of them might work but I need to take that chance to gain experience so that I can grow as leader to become more effective. Right now, to use an analogy, I would just say I'm a buck knife I know about three different styles (three different blades) but I really only ever use the one method (one blade). I need to work to be like a swiss army knife and have a large diversity (multiple tools) and be able to use any one of them at any time.