Sucker for altruism

You may not know this, but last week I considered dropping my classes, quitting my graduate assistantship, and heading down south to volunteer with the Red Cross/FEMA. Back in AmeriCorps, I was disaster services trained, and considering the veritable load of help that is needed, it seemed selfish to dally around school learning about EBSCO when I could be providing help.

After talking to my parents, the school, my GA boss, and random friends I saw, I realized that this is exactly the wrong time to go off for several months. Even though the school assured me that I could re-start next semester, and find a new GA, I didn’t want to screw up what I’ve already started. This schooling is going to make the rest of my life what I want it to be.

But boy did I grapple with it.

Then I got an email from an AmeriCorps teammate who assured those of us in school thinking about taking a semester off to help that FEMA and Red Cross are so disorganized right now, we really wouldn’t be providing enough help to offset the personal sacrifices we were making.

So I felt better about my choice, but much much worse about the state of affairs. I am so frustrated, like we all are, and the only thing I can do now is remind myself that when I’m done with library school I’ll be helping people in my own way. Being in school is important because of that. And hope that the organization improves, because I’d like to spend winter break or summer break helping. Maybe Habitat for Humanity will have their shit together.