Conservation, history, green living and local self-sufficiency are the priorities for these volunteers.

All | Charlotte | Jessica | Laura

Monday Jul 20, 2009

Haikus, hospitals and now volunteering

Hello, this is Jessica, and welcome to my Blog! I'm 22 and finished a BA in Creative Writing at Bolton University a year ago, which was lots of fun, even though being able to knock out a haiku in ten seconds flat, isn't a skill most employers look for.

So, I spend my days alternating between writing for various websites/newspapers/magazines/whoever will have me, whilst working as a Catering Assistant at my local hospital and spending approximately twenty hours a week on job websites. All in all, it's not a bad set-up, I have some pennies to go to the pub with at weekends, my various writing commitments stop my brain from dissolving, and a more exciting 9-5 will come around the corner soon (fingers crossed!)

However, recently I began to see a pattern emerging, and that pattern went: home-work-pub, repeat, and it's never a good thing to have three main ports of call at the tender age of 22. So, I decided to do something about it, and since no-one seemed about to ask me to move to London to run their international business empire single handedly, I decided to try out some volunteering.

Volunteering is something I've always been interested in, especially anything to do with animals. I'm a vegetarian (with several ill-fated but well-meaning attempts at veganism under my belt) and while at university I volunteered with a fantastic conservation group that had me chopping down saplings and small trees and weaving them into hedgerows on the very first day - which isn't your usual Monday morning activity! Although, spending my first session in the middle of an abandoned parkland with a bunch of axe and chainsaw-wielding strangers, did put me slightly on edge!

So, I set out to get out of my rut and hopefully contribute something to society in the process. Hopefully something that involved animals and conservation, without any chainsaws and axes this time.

Posted by Jessica ( 10:24 AM )
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