I had an interesting experience recently. I was at an event with family recently and caught up with someone I haven’t seen in a while. We started talking about life and how retirement is going. I listed all the wonderful things that the world of retirement had given me the chance to engage in. Bowls was pretty much up the top, but I also talked about volunteering.
When I said that I was volunteering in an Op Shop, this person seemed to reel in shock. They commented that I was ‘wasting my talents’ by working in the shop and that I should be doing something like being a volunteer counsellor to use my skills.
It was my turn to reel in horror/shock. As I said to them, ‘why would I go from being paid a good wage to help people in a stressful job, to a stressful job with many similarities for free!’ We continued the conversation and they couldn’t seem to grasp that volunteering as a counsellor wasn’t a good idea in my eyes.
I will admit that at times when I first started working at the Op Shop, I did have some thoughts that I was doing something that not long ago I would not have considered. I certainly wouldn’t want to do it as a job several days a week. The fact that I am a volunteer means I am only committing myself to working in the shop one day per week. I also have no responsibility for anyone else’s life or problems and can just chat to people and be friendly without having any responsibility for their lives attached.
Volunteering gives me social contact and I am still contributing to a worthwhile cause without having to be tied to it. I can probably just stop volunteering whenever/if ever it suits me. I am not tied to contracts or multiple days a week and I can work it round other aspects of my life.
So, do I need to do anything like a counsellor or social worker?
Absolutely not.
Paring life back to a simpler, less stressful way of being is just what I need.
Life is good.
My journey with Parkinsons 