Work for Free or Volunteer?

My first year as a teacher, I was enjoying it so much that I sometimes thought, and commented to people, that I’m actually getting paid to do this?! This is great! I briefly thought that I would even do it for free. 20 years later and I honestly don’t think there would be enough money that I could be offered to make me go back and be a teacher again. I fully support all the teachers that are still in the field, but I just wouldn’t do it again. I also fully support the fact that teachers need to get paid a LOT more than they do now.

To think about doing a job for free makes me question, is it even a job if I’m doing it for free? Isn’t that considered volunteer work? With that said, I absolutely will not commit myself to a regular job if I’m not getting paid, however, I would love to do volunteer work.

I don’t know what I would want to volunteer to do though. A friend of mine volunteers at a local animal rescue to help socialize and play with the kittens. I’d love that! Maybe I’d do something with the library here. I’ve gotten back into reading and might enjoy doing something with books. With my desire to help in the area of mental health, maybe there’s an organization in my community I could help with. I don’t know what I could do without having experience, education, or training in social work. But maybe there would be something, no matter how insignificant, that I could do.

Of course, I need time to do that. And lately, I’ve been wanting to fill up my time with self-centered things that don’t require a rigid time commitment other than my actual job that I get paid for. There will come a time, I’m sure, when I will make volunteering a priority and will be willing to do work-like things for free. Just not right now.