An online year has passed by so quickly. I cannot believe that I have spent a full school year in Zoom meetings and online classes, and more specifically, volunteering online with Healthy U. Initially when the lockdown began, I began to feel overwhelmed, and I missed going to school and seeing my friends. I had never realized what a privilege it was to be able to meet up with people. When September came along, I was glad to be able to have normalcy returned to my life in the form of Healthy U. I have always loved volunteering and returning to volunteer for a second year with Healthy U truly gave me something to look forward to.
In Healthy U, things had changed, we weren’t able to meet with our peers one-on-one, I found the outreach to be an extremely fulfilling experience. In the first semester, I participated in an outreach event alongside another Healthy U member where we made two playlists composed of song requests from students. It was so nice to feel connected to other students in the midst of a pandemic. More recently, I participated in another outreach event with other volunteers where we put on a Sex Pub Trivia event. This had been done in person in the past, so this was our first time implementing the model online and my first time helping to host this event. I truly had a great time helping to put on this event, and hosting it allowed me to reap the fruit of the labour the entire group put in.
All in all, my time in Healthy U has helped me to learn how to work efficiently with others, make friends, and how to adapt to be able to volunteer, even in a pandemic, as that’s something I am truly passionate about.