Having spent most of my life hiding in the shadows, I’ve never
been given much of an opportunity to be a part of anything.  In the past, when someone would approach me
and ask me to volunteer with something, I would run away screaming.  Obviously, this left me out of most social
functions.  Well, my partner has really
been pushing me to “join” more things and get over what he refers to as my
shyness.  I told him that I’m not shy, in
most cases I just don’t want to be bothered. 
Anyway, in an effort to ease his mind some I decided that I would try to
be a bit more social.  I made it a goal
to participate in something that I would normally have little or no interest
in, so when I saw that the local community center was asking for volunteers for
the annual “back to school/end of summer” picnic and trip to the water park, I
decided what the hell, it’s once a year, and I signed up. 

When I met with the director I noticed right
away that they needed someone with artistic ability to help with decorations.  I jumped at the chance to do something with my
natural, God given creativity.  When I
told her that I was a pretty good artist and liked to draw and paint on the
side she seemed delighted.  She asked how
I was at drawing letters and I told her I could pretty much draw anything so
she set me on the task of creating a huge welcome sign that would be hung up on
the stage in the auditorium.  This was a
huge under taking I realized when they explained to me what I would be doing
but I was happy to chip in none the less. 
For the next week I would go to the community center and spend three to
four hours there working on my project. This was a single man project but I
still worked side by side other volunteers who were busy with decorations,
putting together gift bag, or setting up tables and what not.  I’ve never been that comfortable in large
groups of people but everyone seemed really nice and they were easy to work
with.  I wasn’t too far out of my comfort
zone and for the most part people seemed to give me the space that I needed to
complete my work.  It took a long time
but finally I had finished with the sign. 
I had to hand draw letters of the message that they had told me to
write, and I drew it in a special font that the director had showed me
online.  After measuring and drawing all
the words I had to paint them. I have to admit that the painting was sort of
fun.  I used three different colors and
painted them to look like an old west wanted poster. I was quite pleased with
my finished work and I was very pleased to see that the director really liked
what I had done.  I’ve always been the
type that’s eager to please and I love getting recognition for something that I
have worked hard at and done well.  It
makes me feel like I have accomplished something important. 

At the end of the day I said good-bye to the people that I had
worked with over the last week and, and told them that I would see them for the
picnic when I brought my kids.  It will
be neat to walk in with my children and point to the huge welcome sign and say,
“Look, Daddy made that!” I’m a little excited wondering what their reactions
will be when they see it.  My youngest son
has a real talent for art as well, something that I proudly claim he got from
me, and I always try to encourage him in this area.  It will nice for him to see something that I’ve
done that doesn’t include sponge bob or dinosaurs.

After this past week, I would have to say that I did actually
enjoy myself.  My partner is pleased that
I joined an activity and got involved with something, and I feel good about it
too.  I didn’t do a lot of socializing,
as I said it was more or less a solo project and I worked by myself for the
most part, but it’s one step in the right direction, and being a part of the
kids end of summer picnic made me feel really good about myself as well.