Well its not a job, but its the next best thing...

My life feels like its getting back to normal now. Last week was kind of a wash, its never taken me so long to get adjusted back, but then again this is my first time going West and then coming back East to my life and routine. Its much easier going the other way.

After a rough first week of 2010, I jumped in right away this week with getting myself geared up for the next few months. After of a year of trying to get hooked up with some volunteer opportunities through the local volunteer placement agency I kind of took matters into my own hands. Long story short, starting today I will be volunteering every weekday at the local radio station, Radio Hartlepool.

I think I have a lot to offer a radio station, I'm good with words and what is radio after all but spoken words? I am really excited about the opportunity to become more connected to my community, and that is what Radio Hartlepool is about. Radio Hartlepool is a non-profit organization which started as an exclusively volunteer venture and still runs mostly on the blood, sweat and tears of volunteers.

So what will I be doing you might ask? Mostly I will be filling receptionist type duties, answering phones, greeting guests, making tea, and other admin stuff. On top of that I will also be learning a lot about how a radio station works, what goes into running a full time radio broadcast and dipping my toes into all aspects of station operations. It will be a chance for me to feel things out and see if maybe radio is a good career turn for me.

Maybe radio will be the thing for me, maybe it won't, but through helping out the station I gain so much needed local experience and references. It seems to be one of the major problems I have faced in my job search, no "local experience" or "local knowledge". Hopefully my time volunteering at Radio Hartlepool will broaden my local experience and knowledge and open doors for me.

I will be volunteering at the station weekdays from 9 until early afternoon, so it will at least feel like a part time job- just without a paycheck, but at least a sense of purpose and fulfillment should follow. I think it will do me a world of good both emotionally and mentally to have quite literally a reason to get out of bed in the morning, put on something other than pajamas and leave the house. I have gotten pretty comfortable in my home-based routine, but I am hoping this will be a good transitional period between not doing much of anything and gainful employment.