8
9

OTHERI Miss It! (self.AmeriCorps)

running_over_riversState/National Alum, VISTA Alum が 投稿

Do any other alumni miss serving?

After my two years in AmeriCorps service, I'm now working as a civil servant. It was at first difficult to transition from dealing with people to dealing with paper. My pay is so much higher and my benefits are extraordinary, but the work's bland.

I don't miss the low pay or the compulsory happiness that came from service activities, but I do miss the camaraderie. I miss the highs and lows of nonprofit life. I miss belonging to something greater than myself. At my current job I just shuffle paper from one stage to the next. 

(A note: I loved serving in AmeriCorps. I am proud to be an alum. I'm just not very emotive in a group setting. Also, I hated wearing those itchy VISTA shirts! I'd rather make a difference than be a posterboy, that's all!)

Am I odd? Do others feel similarly?

EDIT: Shwowza! Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!

全 6 件のコメント
並べ替え:
ベスト
トップ新着論争中古い順Q&A

[–]running_over_riversState/National Alum, VISTA Alum[S] 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Maybe I'll build my fortune for a few years and then head back into the wide, merry, exciting, dysfunctional world of nonprofits!

[–]edc582VISTA Alum, State/National Alum 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Definitely. I also have a civil service job that's fairly draining, though it's still in a similar sector to my VISTA experience.

I miss the people I worked with as a VISTA, but we keep in touch. I don't miss the shoestring budgeting I had to do or the way I had to constantly justify my presence to some members of my organization, but I'll always remember it as an accomplishment I'm very proud of--probably a more formative experience than university.

[–]crabbyvistaVISTA Alum 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

No, but I know some of my cohort feel that way. I ran into one of my old VISTA colleagues who had to quit during her second term because she desperately needed more money and she was clearly genuinely still a bit heartbroken about missing the "mentorship" at the org.

I couldn't relate: I could have (reluctantly) survived on the stipend but had about zero respect for the leadership. Every professional development session they put on renewed my astonishment at their bad taste.

Anyway, I'm warmed by the glow of my 401K.

[–]running_over_riversState/National Alum, VISTA Alum[S] 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

My VISTA professional development sessions were huge wastes of time. Luckily they usually ended early because technology didn't work or people just gave up.

[–]sporksableNCCC Alum 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Different org (NCCC), same boat. I'm also a civil servant now, and I do enjoy the much better pay and benefits. At the same time, it's a desk job. A decently interesting, sometimes exciting desk job, but still a desk job. I do miss going out every day, working hard, and coming back to housing with the feeling you actually accomplished something. I don't miss having to manage the lives of 9 other people, or the constant meddling by supervisors and sponsors. However, I do miss a lot of it.

[–]jpanizzoState/National Alum, S/N & VISTA Program Director 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I definitely miss serving! During my year, I was given the freedom to steer my project in whichever direction I felt best, and was immersed in the community in which I served.

Now I am on the program side of things, and enforcing the rules is not quite as fun as service. The plus side of having a service year under my belt is that I can make sure members serving in my program don't face any of the nonsense my cohort endured when I was a member.