A church-free confessional

I have a confession: I am a volunteer junkie. It started out innocently enough as a way to get all of the necessary hours for Americorp – 1700 hours is a lot of hours when your program ends at 2:00. This year, 40 hours a week is a blessing; one less thing to worry about in this whole Americorp experience (the other worries begin mainly money and sanity related). Volunteering was also a way to fill up the extra hours Bill was away. But now my hours are on track and Bill is finished with night classes and I still can’t stop. Of course there is a natural high associated with volunteering – the whole do something for yourself while helping others. But that’s not really an adequate explanation seeing my life as I know it right now is devoted to Julie’s Family Learning Program. I feel I’ve basically sold my soul to its success. Tax breaks are another logical reason to be a philanthropist, but I don’t think I even need to touch on how ridiculous that would be for a cause. I think I just have something inside of me that says, “You can always do more.” This sounds like a good thing, but really it’s just an invitation for over-extension in the volunteer arena. Read textbooks for blind and dyslexic people? Absolutely. Pick out books for prisoners? Sounds interesting, I’ll do it. Make meals, serve meals, clean up after meals? I’d LOVE to. You know what though, if I have to be addicted to something, I’ll take volunteering. After all, the Americorp motto is “We get things done.” I guess I just interrupt it a little differently, “ I get everything done – all in one day.”