Opportunities

It wasn't that long ago I was frantically searching hospitals willing to take me as a volunteer. I applied to Hospital1 but never heard back. Hospital2 replied immediately, and I've been there since. It's been great because it's near where I live and I have a great schedule working around my school and full-time job.

A couple days ago, I heard from Hospital1. They apologized for the delay due to large volume of applicants and quality screening standards. Could I come in for a group volunteer interview? There are several pros: it's one of the best hospitals in the country and would look great on my volunteer list, I could make more connections, learn another hospital's operations, and perhaps, receive more varied patient care opportunities. There's only one major con: it's incredibly far to get to from home. Another dilemma is whether they're willing to work around my summer classes, provided I get into them. I'm going to try to take Anatomy + Physiology I and II this summer. Which means, they are fitting 1 semester into 4 weeks. Which means, I will have class every evening after work, M-Th. Which means, I can't do any volunteer work in the summer. I've already notified Hospital2 and they had no problem with it. In the end, I decided it doesn't hurt to go to the interview to complete that step and find out more. It's possible I could do one evening a week after work (when I would be much closer to the hospital), while continuing at Hospital2.

Meanwhile, another hospital opportunity surfaced today. I've been a volunteer with New York Cares for some months now, even going through the process of becoming a Team Leader so I could start a new project at Hospital2. As it turned out, the coordinator at the hospital left and I had no idea if the project would be implemented sooner or later. But my contact at New York Cares called today to ask if I were still interested in the project. Originally, the idea was to have a movie night for the pediatrics in patients. Since this would be a more involved project and the hospital was eager to restart an event, they've altered it to sort of a cake party for the kids. Over the last several months, I've been attending a New York Cares project like this at Hospital1 in the Psychiatric Facility, and it's a lot of fun. I was definitely interested, but in the back of my mind I was reconciling how to take advantage of all these great opportunities at a time when things are in flux and soon to be more hectic in the summer when classes begin.

Like the Hospital1 opportunity, I decided: at least go and find out. New York Cares is only once a month. It would be great to have another volunteer project (and hours) that allows me to demonstrate leadership. So let the chips fall where they may. When you think of it, everything is in flux.