Ever since my flight for freedom over 3 years ago, this has always been my unspoken mantra for navigating my next steps through this new life of mine. It got me through my first year of not really knowing where I should go and what to do. It was a year of motorcycle rides that ended with landing the perfect building to start my public metalsmithing studio. The second phase of adventure was me throwing caution to the wind and following my love for cooking in various parts of the world through Wandering Roots. Starting 2020 came with an opportunity to volunteer through ViDAS, an international group of veterinarians and techs that do free spay/neutering in Puerto Rico, and they needed chefs and kitchen help to feed 80 people.

In the toils of unpaid internships and doing things for “exposure”, volunteering can have far more of an impact on your future. More often than not, you’ll encounter like minded people who are as passionate, driven, and self sacrificing as you. Not saying you won’t find that with an internship, but it is considerably less cut throat.

I also notice more women volunteering. This really never surprised me. Even in high school when I was on the Fire Department through the Explorer Post. Granted, we were still outnumbered by men, but it was a higher ratio in our group of volunteers than employed fire fighters. Women tend to volunteer for social reasons and to strengthen the community. Even if it isn’t their own. There is still something that draws us, on a personal level, to be responsible for that change. Men tend to need some “reward” outside of money to be motivated to volunteer.

I know. Not all men.

When women go into entrepreneurship, they tend to create jobs in the healthcare, social service, or other services that fill a need within a community. Maybe it’s our maternal nature. Maybe it’s the knowledge that if a woman doesn’t do it, it just won’t get done. Or maybe it’s the added satisfaction of helping people that becomes the bonus to our paychecks.

Either way, I can’t stress the valuable connections that one gets from volunteering.

I don’t want to turn this into a battle of the sexes and shit in the punchbowl that men have created for this world but I don’t think working for free is something most men aim to do. As women, we get anywhere from 61-95 cents for every dollar a man earns. Maybe we figure…what’s a little more work with no pay as long as it puts some good in the world?

However, there is something so encredibly intense about going into an environment with a bunch of people you’ve never met but know that on some fundamental level you all share the same passion.