garfield

After two solid months of corresponding via email, phone, and having been stood up for a scheduled meeting once (seriously, in the email sent to me afterwards she said that it was great that I met the receptionist, obviously forgetting that she was given my information from the executive director) , I finally met with the volunteer coordinator of a prominent environmental non-profit. The meeting was brief, we set a shift on Monday for me to come in each week and donate my time, and then she toured me around the office and introduced me. "This is Ben, he'll be volunteering with us."
"Oh! You're Dan and Jeanne's son, aren't they just fantastic?"
"Uh, yea they're alright I guess." I'm reasonably apprehensive of this all. To complicate matters, when I came in for my first actual stint, I realized that my time is going to be wasted here. It is not an internship nor an apprenticeship and apart from my initial tour, the only person I will deal with is the volunteer coordinator, so I am not establishing much of a network either. The work that I'm doing, also, is brainless and menial, data entry mostly.
A further annoyance about this was that I missed a shift that I didn't know I was working at the bakery. Upon getting back from my delivery route, I was preparing to bicycle home and they told me I was scheduled to keep working and I had no idea. I got it covered, and now have Mondays off at the bakery as a result. They were pretty understanding, the boss said, "If this is your dream then do not give up. For me, I will have bagel kingdom!"