I once took a Facebook quiz, back when taking Facebook quizzes wasn’t just something your parents and grandparents did, back when only students could have Facebook profiles, back when all Facebook photos were party pics uploaded from a digital camera… sigh, the good old days. I digress… I once took a Facebook quiz and it was called: “What colour is your heart?”
Behind my keyboard I clicked away, telling Facebook with brutal honesty, how I would react in different situations and who I am as a person. I clicked submit with glee as I waited for the results, which obviously were very scientific and meaningful. Submit… Processing… Black. Wait… what? The colour of my heart was black. Not pink, not red, not even green or blue, but black. That’s not even a colour! I stared at the screen perplexed for a minute as the true colour of my heart was automatically posted to my profile. Well little black heart, I guess the world knows our secret now.
So, you’re probably wondering, 1.) what’s the point of me telling you all of this and 2.) should you really continue being my friend/colleague/acquaintance? I’m getting to it!
Over the past few years I have been volunteering my time with two different organizations in our city: Big Brothers Big Sisters (6+ years) and Make-A-Wish (1.5+ years). Shocking right? I guess they didn’t catch my little black heart in the interview!
The one thing I have noticed when people hear about my volunteer work is that I get all sorts of compliments and pats on the back. “You’re amazing!” “I don’t know how you do it!” “Oh man, I don’t think I could do that.” “You have such a great heart!” (Ha!)
Now I love compliments (almost as much as I love getting likes on Facebook) but in the words of one of our three year old Wish Kids, “I’m not a princess, I’m just a regular girl.”
Before I started volunteering, I too put volunteers on a pedestal. I viewed “them” as different from myself. “They” were bubbly, keeners. “They” were probably nicer, smarter, and better than me. “They” were movers and shakers on a mission. I, was little black heart. I admired the difference they were making, but didn’t think I could do it.
After perusing the Big Brothers Big Sisters and Make-A-Wish volunteer applications for awhile and chickening out, I stopped and thought about it. I realized that “they” were just regular people too,”they” just decided to step outside of their comfort zone and follow their heart (whatever colour it may be).
My little black heart told me that if I found the right opportunity, I could have a positive impact on my community. So I leaped and I’ve never looked back.
What does it take to make a a difference? Being yourself and having the confidence to know that you can. Take the leap, you won’t regret it.
Creative Betty 