Tag Archives: volunteer

Adding A Little Control In My Life (or Finding Little Ways To Be Helpful)

Posted on January 28, 2020 | Comments Off on Adding A Little Control In My Life (or Finding Little Ways To Be Helpful)

There is so much that is out of my control in my life. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more it has stressed me out. I’ve never really focused too much on that idea before. I knew that my career is out of my control in a way because I can’t control when I get auditions or when I book jobs. I can control how prepared I am for auditions, but that doesn’t guarantee I will get the job. But I never thought too much about how much in the rest of my life is out of my control.

I have tried to find control in my life in different ways, but I haven’t necessarily been successful. The main thing that comes to mind is finding a better job. I know that there isn’t a single job that can guarantee I am not at risk for losing it or feeling a bit out of control, but having a job that isn’t contract based or pays me enough to feel like I have a bit of a buffer would be helpful. But finding a job is also out of my control because I have applied for probably hundreds of jobs and rarely get interviews. I think it might be because the jobs I’m applying for don’t have super specific qualifications and they are good jobs, so a lot of people are applying for them as well. But all I can do is keep trying and hoping that something works out for me soon.

But instead of trying to change things that are out of my control into things that are in my control, I have been focusing on finding things I know I can control and add to my life. That helps me feel a bit more in control overall. And the best thing that I have found that gives me a sense of control is being helpful to other people in my life. I know I can’t control when they will need my help, but being available to provide help feels like enough for me right now.

I’ve found lots of random ways to be helpful. For example, a friend of mine needed a place to park his car that wouldn’t be on the street. He was asking if anyone knew of a cheap place for long-term parking. I have an extra parking space at my house. I have a garage that I don’t park in plus my regular parking spot. And I’ve let other friends borrow my garage in the past when they needed it because it’s not being used normally. So I offered it to this friend and he was able to use it while he was out of town for an extended period of time. I know that this was minimal effort from my end, but I know how much my friend appreciated it and I felt really good that I was able to help.

I’ve also been sending out cards to friends randomly when I know they could use some support. Sometimes I can’t do much because my friends aren’t local, but I still want to help them in some way. So sending a card for no reason can be a small way to help improve their mood. And I know these cards do help a bit when they are feeling low. And last week, I offered to help a friend get a bit of a break when she’s been dealing with a rough pregnancy and parenting a toddler. That ended up just being us hanging out and catching up for several hours, but I did help a little bit with watching her kid when she needed to step away for a few moments. And my offer to help her out is open-ended so I am very happy to go over to babysit for free when she needs it.

Being helpful really does make me feel in control and feel a lot better about things. For a long time, I have said I would love to be doing some regular volunteer work. I did a lot of volunteer work in high school and college, but I really haven’t done much after college. I’ve done a few random things, but nothing regular. And technically, my union service work is volunteering, but I’d love to do something that benefits more than just the union. But I also have been hesitant to commit to something when I know my job situation could change. Maybe I need to stop using that as an excuse so that I can have more helpful moments in my life. Even though helping others isn’t selfish, I do love how much better it makes me feel about my life.

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MOVE LA (or More SAG-AFTRA Involvement)

Posted on March 28, 2017 | Comments Off on MOVE LA (or More SAG-AFTRA Involvement)

I’ve written lately how I am making an effort to be more involved with SAG-AFTRA. The elections for being a delegate are coming up again, and I’ve realized that I have not maximized my union membership over the past 2 years the way that I wanted to. So I’ve been trying to find new ways to be involved now so that when I hopefully get elected to be a delegate again that I will already be on the right track to be doing more with the union.

This past week, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting for the MOVE LA committee. MOVE stands for Members Organizing Volunteer Efforts. I’ve been on their email list for a while, but I haven’t been able to attend any volunteer events or meetings in the past. But since I am making my union more of a priority in my life, I set aside the time to go to this meeting.

The beginning of the meeting was more of social time than anything else. We all had time to get something to eat and drink and to talk to the other union members who were at the meeting. It was nice to have that time because a lot of the members of the MOVE committee are friends of mine so I got to catch up with them. And there were new people to meet at the meeting as well which is also really fun.

Once the meeting officially got started, we got to learn a lot about the MOVE LA committee and the events that they do.

The committee puts on a lot of really great events covering so many different topics that are important to SAG-AFTRA members. These include discussing auditioning, working in voiceover, making ends meet with day jobs, social media, producing our own projects, and safety on set. These events often are recorded and put up on the MOVE LA website so even if I can’t make it to an event I can still learn about it! I had no idea about the video archive and I will be watching so many of these past events now.

They also do a lot of volunteering work (as the name of the committee suggests). These volunteer efforts include a senior buddy program, doing charity walks, and helping the post office with their big food drive. I really want to be able to help with more volunteer work, but I know that some of those will have to wait. The food drive will be right after my surgery, and I won’t be able to lift things like I would need to in order to help. But I hope that many people will be able to help out and I’ll be sharing on social media all about it so hopefully I can get others to sign up to volunteer.

MOVE LA is also the parent committee of the NextGen Performers Committee, which put on the happy hour I went to recently. NextGen Performers will be doing more happy hours that I will be attending in the future, but I know I will be missing the next one. But again, I will be making the effort in my schedule to fit those events in so I can meet more actors and work on being more involved with SAG-AFTRA in general.

Even though I have been getting the MOVE LA emails for a while, I learned so much more about the committee at this meeting. There are more ways for me to be involved with this committee than I knew about and lots of opportunities to learn at the various events that they throw. If you are in LA, I highly recommend getting involved with MOVE LA. And there are MOVE committees in other SAG-AFTRA locals as well if you are a union member not in LA. If you have questions about the committee, there are email addresses for the local committees on the website. But you can also ask me in the comments and I’d be happy to pass your question on for you!

I’m so glad that I made the commitment to get more involved with SAG-AFTRA. I haven’t been taking advantage of my union in the way that I should (which is outside of going to screenings and enjoying screener DVDs). The MOVE LA committee is a great way for me to be more involved in the union while also putting some good out into the world. And that seems like the perfect thing for me to be doing right now.

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