Volunteer Validation

We all need to be validated. We all need to know that our efforts mean something and are affecting someone, someway. Whether it's ourselves or others.

I am blessed that I can stay at home and take care of my children. I am blessed to have a husband who provides us well enough to give me this opportunity.

My children all go to school full time so that leaves me with some time to myself during the day. I could spend it cleaning, cleaning, cleaning or not cleaning and watching TV all day or numerous other things. I choose to take some of my time to volunteer and help empower our Military Families.

As I've mentioned before I teach Army Family Team Building classes, classes that help our Families and their Soldiers learn the basics of Army life to leadership skills. It's a program I am very passionate about. Some of the classes are fun to teach and some aren't. I class I teach often but I would say I love to teach because it's hard subject to talk about is the Crisis, Coping and Grieving class. We talk about loss of life, limb and how to help people go through the grieving process. We also talk about the Casualty Notification Process. No one wants to talk about that process. But it's important, especially in our lifestyle. I taught that class yesterday. Sometimes it can be a depressing class to teach. I also taught a Customs and Courtesy class which is a class that I thoroughly enjoy teaching because nothing is better than learning about traditions in the Army.

Today after teaching the second class, I had two of the students thank me for both classes. One in particular said she really wanted to thank me for the experience and care I shared while teaching the Crisis class yesterday. She admitted she is still dealing with their last deployment and it was nice to hear from other people who had been down the same journey. I appreciated her telling me. The other person told me I was awesome (who doesn't like to hear that?). I was humbled, she said that she could hear the passion for Army families while I taught and how I don't just teach to teach but to really help families and Soldiers understand this complicated lifestyle. I appreciated her words.

Sometimes you wonder if your words make a difference. Sometimes you wonder if it's worth your time. Today validated to me, that it is. If I can help one person by sharing my time, my knowledge and my experience, it's worth it. I don't know everything, I learn a lot from my students, probably more than I could ever teach but if what I do know helps someone else..it's worth it.

Knowing that I can make a difference is validating.