So You Won't Be "Volunteer of the Year"
Tricia Oakes of TheSouthernSpark.com is excited to be cleaning out closets, working and following up on long-promised projects now her kids are back in school. And after "burning out" on leading the fundraising organization for school last year, she is ready to take - it - easy! She is signing up where and when she can - can you relate? Don't miss her post - read an excerpt below and the entire piece over on her site.
Now is the the time I’ve been fantasizing about all summer. I’m cleaning out closets, drawers, and cabinets so that I don’t turn into a raving lunatic every time I open one and see the disorganization. I’m getting my desk back in order. Because for four uninterrupted hours a day, Monday through Thursday, I’m going to work.
I’m going to write that book I’ve been planning for months. I’m going to work on the marketing and social media projects I’ve been promising my clients will come to fruition after Labor Day. I’m going to blog. I’m going to pee by myself.
All of that in the 16 hours per week that Frat Boy The Younger is at preschool. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave a ton of time to spend at the kids’ schools helping out.
And there is this:
Here’s the other thing: I just came off of a year of being President of a local women’s group that raises money for our schools and other charities. I’m burnt out, and I need to focus on myself and my burgeoning businesses this year.
This year, I won’t end up being “Volunteer of the Year,” but I’ll pitch in when I can. I feel a little bit guilty not helping more, because I really do love organizing people, things and events. And being the boss. I really love being the boss.
But.
If I were plunging headfirst into the volunteer pool as I normally do, I’d be using VolunteerSpot.
Tricia Oakes is a wanderlusting foodie Anglophile wife and mama who loves travel, tasting and experience. Here at Southern Spark you’ll find tips about meals and trips big and small, and looking cute doing it. Sprinkles of stories about raising two Wee Frat Boys (ages five and two) in the burbs and being married to funniest man in the Carolinas are thrown in to taste (She may or may not steal his one-liners). All are delivered in a pot of Southern accent with a side of sassy mouth.
If Rick Steves and Anthony Bourdain had a daughter, raised her in Charlotte, educated her at the University of Georgia and the University of Texas at Austin, peppered it with a Junior Year abroad stint in England at the University of Reading, and then settled her down in Fort Mill, South Carolina, that daughter would be Tricia Oakes.
Tricia writes a regular column for the Fort Mill Times, and is currently available for freelance writing, guest blogging, product, and venue review assignments.
