Ramadan Journal: Time Well Spent!

"Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson."


Thanks dear Holmes, I really appreciate your word of encouragement (as my post introduction hahaha jk).

During my first year, I joined an ongoing volunteering programme in UCL, with an organisation named UCL Special Collections, Archive and Records for five months (used to be known as SCAR but has been recently called as UCL Special Collections). We were initially allowed to apply for five roles out of 11 roles offered in the organisation. Long story short, I was given the opportunity to work with my supervisor Elizabeth Lawes, whom I frankly call Liz, who is in charge of the Poetry Store, Little Magazines, and Alternative Press collection sorting team.

What motivated me to start volunteering? It was just because I have a natural desire in venturing out into something new, really. And I have this habit of keeping myself occupied hehe

Oh yeah, some background of the collection we worked on...
'Poetry Store collection is a collection that started in the 1960s and contains small press publications, mostly of poetry but also includes fiction and creative work in other media, with a total of over 7000 titles. Meanwhile, Little Magazines are those which publish creative, often innovative works, with little or  no regard for commercial gain. Its content is often outside the criteria governing most mainstream journals. The Alternative Press can be seen to have much in common with Little Magazines, exploring the possibilities of alternative cultures and societies.'

I always had fun going through these amazing collections! Liz had always encouraged to take our time to read, flip through or take pictures of anything we found fascinating, while working through the whole sorting process. We usually shared amusing stuffs that came across us; those moments broke the silence of the room with giggles and laughter.

Too bad I lost all other pictures in my old phone :((

When you start working with any organisation or being part of any committee, you start to learn about the whole processes that happen behind the scene. All these charities and community organisations definitely play a big role! I started to appreciate and acknowledge the effort of these people who work out the procedure from the beginning to the end; going through the whole hardship of packaging, categorising, cataloguing, updating, and so on.

So, after 6 months, how does volunteering make me feel?
Great! For the fact that I have been able to help Liz with the sorting process, though not much but it was indeed an exciting experience :)
Grateful! As I was able to fill some of my free time out of my academic commitment with something useful :)
Revitalised! We spent our Wednesdays in the Staff Training Room in the Science Library, and sometimes got the chance to visit the archive room underground #feelingprivileged hahaha. A tutorial that I had every Wednesday was the most depressing tutorial (just because I had always looked stupid during the session), so this volunteering session distracted me from the inevitable disappointment and misery that I couldn't handle every time I walked out of my tutor's room huhu.

Thanks a lot, if it's not for you guys, my spirit to carry on with life for the rest of the week might won't be revived :')

Everyone can graduate with grades, but what differs us all are the things that we take out of our time, from the way we look at life. Plus, university-life can be daunting. With high academic commitment and unexpected life crisis, I believe sometimes you just have to find some kind of pleasure to get your mind off the pressure ;)