Topic 9: Tasks 2-3

II. It's hard for me to capture exactly what my general attitude is, because I'm often moody and it (what I'm feeling, how I'm acting) could be anything. I tend to lean more towards pessimism in my own thoughts, but I advocate and try to be a medium for optimism. Either way, I'm not only and always one or the other. I'm very polite, sweet, and open (while being shy at the same time, not being entirely confident and hoping to make a good impression)...a good listener...open-minded, but not always the most aware person. I say that because, especially when it comes to my strange sense of humour, I can accidentally offend or freak out people. I'd say that I normally react in a neutral (vs. positively or negatively) way to situations that arise in my life. By that, I don't mean that I'm flat and un-emotional. In fact, I mean exactly the opposite: it's hard to predict how I'll be approaching and really feeling in a certain situation. One thing I can at least say remains constant is my tendency to be a people pleaser. The only exception to this is that I instinctively stick by the rule "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" and I'll remove myself from an area if I'm not in a particularly good mood. It's very rare that I'll say or do anything to deliberately make someone else uncomfortable or unhappy. Another however...I am sometimes really sarcastic, and it isn't always caught.

The attitude I display at my volunteer opportunities is not all that different from the one described above, except that the whole "people pleaser" aspect is put to the extreme. I try to, or tend to; show only the things about myself that I like, that I think other people will like so as to make the best impression possible. I don't mean that I'll be "fake"...no, I think what I'm trying to say is that, whilst at a job I try to make the best impression possible on everyone, and also working in these situations generally completely distracts me from falling into my little negative hole of despair and moody craziness. Seriously! Besides, if you want someone to give you a good review, and to consider inviting you back...wouldn't you instinctively suppress any action that might not make them so willing to do so? I think so. Charming, genuine, innovative, adventurous, polite, well-educated, witty, enthusiastic...that's me on a good day in a nutshell, I guess. It's hard to analyse yourself honestly and correctly. Isn't psychology just the greatest?!

III. As always, I will describe what's important to keep in mind about Service Learning. A good attitude is obviously very, very important so that, again; you will come back from a job with good reviews and perhaps the supervising people wanting to invite you back. Not only that, but we can't always choose our volunteer opportunities and thus must sometimes do things we're not exactly fans of, maybe even things we hate. Forcing yourself to be positive makes these unfavourable tasks a lot easier to get through. Sometimes, through just trying to be positive about what you're doing, you'll actually find that you're starting to surprisingly enjoy yourself.