rhapsodic.org

Volunteers

There is a group of 30 teens and college-age people from Ohio here for a week to volunteer for my organization, and there has only been a smidgen of preparation:

• We want them to tend to the landscaping, but we don't have a weed eater or flowers for them to plant.
• We want them to swap a couple of offices around, but there is no plan as to how the new offices will be laid out or even in what order they will be moved.
• We want them to wash the building exterior, but we have no power washer and we have no ladder.
• We want them to set up for a garage sale, but we have no tables.
• We want them to clear brush, but we have no tools to do so.
• We want them to paint a sign, but we have no wood or paint.

The list goes on and on.

I am finding myself being much busier than I ever should have been, and frustrated at certain individuals for the giant lack of planning. I have caught myself a few times before exclaiming, "Why don't we have...?" and "If I had been in charge..."

At home last night I was feeling a general sense of wasting my talents. I feel like I could be doing so much more than a silly office job at a silly non-profit. Lord knows I had bigger plans when accepting my physics student of the year award in high school. What happened?