Berlin in Frankfurt

After a bustling 2018 Christmas season, January brought an unusual sensation: for the first time in about fifteen years, there was no boss or teacher expecting me to show up for the day. 

True to form, I started making lists. There were pro and con lists, goal lists, and lists just for the sake of making lists as I decided what I should do with my newfound time.

Here we are about many months after that day and I decided to update my LinkedIn profile to reflect on some of the things I’ve done in a volunteer capacity. I thought it would be fun to share my activities during my time in Frankfurt – not to display my accomplishments – but rather as an encouragement if you find yourself in a similar situation where your professional identity feels “paused” or changes dramatically and many times, quite suddenly.

I not only found that I used numerous professional skills in this role but also grew and stretched out of my comfort zone in unexpected ways.

For anyone who needs to hear this: your identity is not limited to the 9 to 5 but rather extends to many facets of life throughout the course of your career and lifespan. Further, I’m finding the courage to be at peace with a different reality for this season. Sometimes I do struggle when I scroll LinkedIn and see the amazing accomplishments and promotions achieved by my professional network. But remember – comparison is the thief of all joy. Walk your own path. 

To get back to Frankfurt, my main responsibility was managing volunteers, programming, marketing, and fundraising for the Frankfurt Refugee Outreach Committee as well as liaising with leadership at three local refugee centers to coordinate programming and donations. Beyond the generic description, I wanted to share some notable moments and memories: 

I loaded and delivered more carloads of donations than I can count. Two funny stories about that…

• One time I picked up a load of household goods including a Tempurpedic mattress. The apartment where I picked it up had construction all around and the elevator was out of surface. I’m proud to say I successfully got it downstairs and somehow crammed it into my SUV and got the hatched closed. The mattress went to an 11 year old child who I hope is having nothing but peaceful dreams on this luxurious mattress. 

• “Most unique donation” award goes to a donation of a huge amount of spring/Easter candy and craft supplies. This was right around the time of Nowruz (Persian New Year) and the donations were perfect to make boxes of treats for families stuck inside social distancing instead of having their usual large festivities. A friend and I drove over and expected to find a few boxes. Instead we arrived to multiple pallets stacked high with items. We stuffed my SUV to the point where my friend had boxes of chocolate bunnies on her lap and under her feet. It was also pouring rain the whole time. When I opened the rear hatch later, an avalanche of chocolates, egg dying kits, and bunny ears spilled out. I was shaking with laughter as I picked them up off the rainy ground. The families were delighted (and probably had a stomachache from all the sugar).

Women’s Events

• During the summer, our group facilitates several women’s outings. Many of the women at the centers lack frequent opportunities to leave the grounds or have a fun and carefree day out. We encourage them to leave children and babies at home if they are able. Last June, we had an outing scheduled and the forecast was 106° F and I had visions of people fainting and getting dehydrated. The women were anxious to still do something so we pivoted to a picnic in a local park. It was hot as hades but we had a great time picnicking, dancing, and chatting for several hours.
  
• The rescheduled outing was a day trip to Rüdesheim (cute riverside town) last September. It was a long day getting twenty-five women and two baby prams on a series of several trains to get out there, on a boat, on a gondola and down but they had a wonderful time. We stopped for at least two picnics and two ice cream stops. Sometimes I’d turn around and women would be dropping to picnic left and right…I like their style.

Kids Programming/English Class

Last November I took over leading our English class on Monday nights for refugee kids ages ~6-12. This role was hugely out of my comfort zone because I have no teaching experience and while I like kids, I’m not always super comfortable around them. This class forced me to grow in confidence and learn as I go and prepare for the unexpected – some weeks we’d have five kids and other times we’d have up to thirty. We would normally start with review/vocabulary then move into new material and split up to do worksheets and other activities. I used “Germglish” to explain things to the kids and they thought it was HILARIOUS that I couldn’t speak German as well as them. 

The most chaotic part of class was always the attendance sheet at the end. Kids get “stars” for attendance and to measure how attentive they were. Every six stars they could choose a prize from the treasure chest (an old Tupperware bin). You would have thought we were giving away hundred-dollar bills. I cannot even describe to you the craziness of getting thirty kids in a line in broken German and then asking them to find their scribbled name on the list. There were certain kids who were excellent salespeople – trying to convince that “yes they were here last week, you just don’t remember” – or – “no, you haven’t given me a prize yet I just look like that other kid.” Never dull.

Another highlight was our Halloween party that we had in place of our English class one evening. We had a snack table and craft stations set up around the room. It was 120 minutes of chaotic fun.

• 

• 

• 

One last highlight was a gingerbread house workshop for grade school kids last December. They really got into decorating – it was also fun to see the range of disaster houses to ones that were meticulously decorate. One little girl spent an hour glueing tiny pieces of graham cracker on before I told her to move along.

Wine Tasting Dinner 

Our primary fundraiser for the year is an annual wine tasting dinner. Planning this event was a ton of work – similar to planning a small wedding – but really used my strengths and it was a fun and successful evening in the end. Some snapshots below.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I drafted this blog a while ago but with the move, haven’t had a chance to finish it up. I’m sitting in my new place and realizing that I have three years ahead of me to fill with more growth and learning.

While I’m not sure if this time will be filled with another volunteer role or perhaps jumping backing into the communications/digital realm (numerous opportunities here in Vienna), my spirit is much calmer than it was that January day when I woke up without a 9 to 5.

My chief goal is to keep my eyes, ears, and heart open to what might come my way. To those reading this and have found themselves in a similar situation, I challenge you to be both gracious to yourself and challenge yourself to find something to stretch beyond your normal abilities even if it’s simply finding a fulfilling hobby.

In a matter of months I went from presenting web design comps to a conference room of scientists to convince them the public would better understand their research this way to teaching 10 year old refugee children the names of the seasons in English in my broken German.

Neither less worthy than the other but both are now part of my identity. Let’s toast to the windy road of life and see what’s next.