Why we have shortages of volunteers (Silvia)

If you’re new to my crazy-rant posts, here’s a summary of me: I’m a nineteen year old Science student who prefers a good book to an outing with friends. In other words, I’m old, lazy and anti-social.

So when I went to uni on Thursday to buy textbooks (That’s right, I can afford textbooks this year. Hooray for holiday work!) I was horrified to find out O-Week was ongoing.
Imagine this: PEOPLE. Lots of them. Massive crowds and scores of sweaty bodies jostling you. Just the thought of it made me shudder. But I needed textbooks and decided to get in, get out and avoid all the O-Week fuss.

But of course it didn’t go to plan. I had four friends with me: Nicole and Chung, who I have talked about before, Jeff who is a friend from high school and Shane, who stalks me around the train station. They wanted to check out the clubs and see if they could nab some free stuff. Psh, Asians. It’s not like I joined them because I’m cheap or anything. I totally caved in to peer pressure.
And I regretted it almost immediately because people just do not stop shoving paper in your face! Some of them were good pieces of paper, like ‘Buy one get one free’ from EasyWay (a bubble tea shop I adore). But most of them were rubbish and I spared a thought for the amount of trees that were killed in the name of O-Week.
Last year, I was weak and joined far too many clubs: all of which I never attended meetings or BBQs. I swore I would not be rash and join half a dozen different clubs. I swore I would not be baited this year.

Until a girl held out a stick of fairy floss. “Who wants free fairy floss?” she yelled and I jumped up to her with a grin on my face.
“Me!” I said.
“Great, now join the XXXX,” she said with a devious smile. That club which encourages volunteering shall remain nameless because although I am mad, I am not mean. Usually.
But yeah, damn. She had bait and I fell for it like a mouse in a trap. I should have been embarrassed to be that dumb. Of course there was a catch. But how could I not fall for it? It was fairy floss, for goodness sake. Sugary pink fluffs of goodness and happiness!
“Oh, sure,” I shrugged. At that time, I didn’t mind. Membership is usually cheap and since it was a volunteering organisation, I knew they couldn’t be too expensive. The girl directed us to the place for sign-ups and I happily popped a small chunk of fairy floss in my mouth. All my friends start attacking the fairy floss as well but they all stopped when Chung said:
“It’s got a hair in it.”
The four of us peered at the stick and there it was. A single strand of light brown hair lying dead straight in the middle of the floss like someone put it there on purpose to mock me.
My friends made comments about it being ‘ew’ and ‘yuck’ but I honestly didn’t hear much of them. I could only stare down at my fairy floss and the hair in it. I had put that in my mouth. I ate fairy floss which had been precariously close to that single strand of hair. Brown hair. Light brown hair.
“Let’s go sign up,” Nicole said, urging me to keep walking. There was a crowd gathering behind us but I could not move. I could only stare down at my fairy floss and the hair that shimmered in the sunlight.
I had been given tainted fairy floss. Tainted. With hair. A single strand. In my fairy floss.
Shane saw that I was frozen and grinned. “Are you still going to sign up?”
Tainted fairy floss. That I couldn’t eat.
And that was when the wave of indignation crashed down over me.
“NO!” I shrieked and stomped my foot on the ground like a five-year old girl throwing a tantrum. In a furious rage, I shrilled, “NO, I AM NOT SIGNING UP ANYMORE!”

My friends found it funny. I sure as hell didn’t. No-one, and I mean no-one, messes with me and my fairy floss. How DARE they?! That was absolutely unforgiveable and I will never ever join the XXXX’s volunteering endeavours. EVER.
And if you’re thinking I’m over-reacting over bits of sugar: there are other volunteering clubs out there I’ve already joined. So there. Harumph.

More stuff happened on Thursday but I’ll tell that another time 😉

Till then,
Silvia