My first volunteering experience

Volunteering is becoming more and more popular each year. It broadens person`s horizons and communication skills. There is no need to explain all of the countless advantages that volunteering has.

I am going to share my first experience.

After passing a volunteer course from “Astana Zhastary”, I signed up for an event, dedicated to 8^th March, where a lot of Kazakhstani artists performed. Our responsibilities included direction of guests, assistance in wardrobe and provision of information. I was looking forward to events that required English proficiency, however, I needed first experience to have an idea of organization of such events, to meet new people and to test myself in stressful situations.

I signed for it with my college friends, thus, I felt calmer and more confident when we were getting to know other volunteers. We were sent to a concert zone. After memorizing the arrangement of rows and seats, we needed to wait 30-35 minutes until the guests started coming. I was standing on my position to greet guests and show them the direction to another volunteer, so he is going to lead him to the exact seat.

It might seem hilarious, but first difficulty was hunger. We came to the concert hall at 16:00 and we have been fed only at 19:30. I have spent almost an hour getting to that place, therefore waiting until our coordinators had had time to give us food felt like forever. I would recommend every volunteer to take some snacks on any event as I did, in case of severe hunger.

The most fascinating thing was a performance of Bagzhan Oktyabr`. The combination of special effects and his violin piece was truly astonishing. Although I have heard of Bagzhan Oktyabr` a little before, I didn`t expect him to “give us chills”.

After the end of the concert, we, quenched thirst and hunger volunteers, were sent to help the stuff with wardrobe, which is the scariest part of almost each winter event. For the reason that wardrobe doesn’t spare anyone. It doesn`t matter if a volunteer hasn`t examined it. Any help is highly appreciated there in “rush hour”, when there is a thousand of people impatiently waiting for their outerwear. We looked like hamsters in a running wheel, although, hamsters stop to look if they changed their location and found food, we – don`t. The endless circle of searching and giving the coats and jackets can`t be broken until there are no people left. One of the most intense 20 minutes in my life left a slightly unsettling aftertaste coupled with a sense of completion. The valuable advice I would give to a new volunteer before entering the wardrobe, is — not to hurry. It`s absolutely acceptable to have a minute to understand how it works.

What was quiet difficult as well, was responding to questions, answers to which I didn`t know. Especially, when it happened in a stream of arriving guests, who wanted to ask me something likewise. In that case, we were told to ring or text the coordinator immediately. At the same time, I had to give responses to others. That is one of the reasons of communication skills requirement.

My first experience was quiet positive and successful. I would say it was stressful indeed, but an ability to be stress resistant makes us more confident and opener to new adventures. Volunteering is a key to loosening up and expanding a circle of acquaintances.