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Volunteering

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by AwesomGaytheist, Sep 14, 2013.

  1. AwesomGaytheist

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    I think I've found a way to get some community service hours on my resume and pick up a reference doing something I actually enjoy.

    Here on campus we have a student-run service where we give people safe rides home. Doesn't matter whether you're drunk, high, sober, male, female, straight, gay, white, black, or even purple, we just want to make sure you're safe.

    It's all volunteer-run, and last night was the first night that I did it. Me and this girl were paired up and we hit it off for the night, we had each other laughing hysterically, and even the ones that were the most drunk were still fun. Boy did we have some stories to tell at the end of the night.

    Basically they paired us up at random and we were all assigned a rental car. Me and my partner got a Dodge Grand Caravan. Even though it was a soccer mom van, that thing had an amazing engine on it. I was peeling out of stoplights and man, that thing was great!

    I had one person think that I was Danny DeVito :confused: and another one said as he staggered out of the van, "You...you guys are the best d-d-drivers...evur!"

    I got home at 4:30 in the morning and into bed at 5, and tonight, I'm going out to do it all over again. But every night, you get a new story to tell.
     
  2. BMC77

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    This "taxi service" idea is a great one. It's wonderful to pass all sorts of rules and regulations about no alcohol on campus, but the reality is much different.

    I've never driven a Mom Mobile, er, mini van enough to really get an impression. But someone I know used to drive one, and she never had trouble going faster than 99% of the other drivers.
     
  3. TheMailman

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    Haha, sounds like fun. Who needs to party all night if you can have a good time and help people at the same time!
     
  4. Tightrope

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    Sounds like fun and a good way to get involved on campus, not to mention accumulate funny stories. That's partly what college is for - to accumulate funny stories.
     
  5. Choirboy

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    At the risk of getting a little "deep"--You may not realize it at the moment, but volunteering for just about anything is a great way to combat depression, anxiety and self-esteem problems as well. The goofy episodes with the drunks will keep you entertained (and like you say, give you some great stories to tell!). But when you really think about it, you may also have prevented an accident, a rape, a gay-bashing, who knows what. And you're keeping yourself occupied so you have less time to dwell on problems you might be facing. Very often, the people who make our lives better aren't the ones who created polio vaccines or run the world--it's the anonymous ones who give us a safe ride home or smile at us when we're feeling down, or help us pick up the books that we dropped. We may never see them again, but in their own way, they've done some little thing to make our lives better. And now you're one of them!
     
  6. ScatteredEarth

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    I'm 'technically' volunteering at the restaurant I work at :3
     
  7. BMC77

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    On the lighter side, I remembered a taxi driver joke you might appreciate sooner or later...

    A drunk got into a taxi. "Hey! You got room for a pizza and a six pack?" he asked.

    "Yeah! Sure thing!" the driver said.

    So the drunk threw up.
     
  8. AwesomGaytheist

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    Last night me and a guy who was a good Cee Lo Green look-alike were paired up, and that was a workout. We got so many calls from downtown, which sucked. If you want me to drive around in the area around campus, I can do that just fine, but downtown Kalamazoo is a bitch. All the streets are one-way, so you can get there, but good luck getting back.

    Another run we did, a girl pulls a huge bottle of Absolut vodka out of her bag and asked me if she could take it with her. I said, "Absolutely not." So she turns around and throws it at somebody's car. She turned back around and slurred, "I....didn't mean to do that," after the bottle smashed against the door of a Ford Fiesta. I heard another three crashes from the distance, and it turned out somebody was throwing more bottles out the window of one of these houses.

    When we went to a gay bar downtown, we picked up someone with the hairdo of Richard Simmons and got completely and totally lost on the way there because again, we were on a one-way street and there was no way to turn around if you miss your turn. Cee Lo Green was going about 50 MPH down these side streets, and so when our dispatch was on the phone giving us directions, he missed every fricking turn.

    The good thing is that when you find your passengers, they're more than happy to give you directions, but when they take you to BFE, yeah, you have no idea how to get back.

    We might have saved some girl from being raped last night. This girl who wasn't riding with us was so drunk she could barely stand up and this guy wearing a sombrero and a fake mustache was clearly trying to take her home. My partner yelled out the window, "Are you really going to go home with someone in a sombrero?"

    The guy yelled back in the voice of the Outback Steakhouse commercial narrator, "Are you insulting Mexican people?"
     
  9. gravechild

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    Volunteering definitely has its advantages. I'm working at my second warehouse this fall, and while initially bummed out that I couldn't attend school this semester, it's definitely the type of change I desperately needed.

    I'd much rather be working at a grocery store than living on disability, which was something several people brought up after my recent suicide attempt and hospitalization.