A Beautiful Moment Brought to You by Volunteerism
This week's guest blog is brought to you by Ghazi Abid. He believes education and art can change the world, which is why he is a practitioner of both. With experience in teaching, curriculum design and career development, Ghazi loves working with students from all age groups. As a newcomer to Canada, he is enjoying the pursuit of my varied hobbies: reading, biking, playing soccer and volunteering. To connect with Ghazi you can look for him on LinkedIn or Substack.
She was hunched over me closely inspecting my every move and even though I sensed some doubt emanating from her demeanor, the air of hope was much stronger. I continued diligently, my latex gloves now torn from the friction generated by the wrench I held. I wrestled with the frequent thoughts of failure and subsequent shame which put my sweat glands into overdrive in the industrious yet warm confines of Bike Root. “Oh wow, you did it, he did it!”, she exclaimed and gently patted my back as I straightened and pointed towards the stand I had just installed on the frame of her bike. She was motioning for Tom, the actual mechanic, to come and see the job I had done which she had felt was impossible to do herself. As I marveled at the work I had done, having no experience as a mechanic, I felt as if I was standing on a podium in front of a crowd of loving supporters. She immediately tested the newly installed stand, her eyes gleaming with joy. I could tell it meant so much to her because she had earlier mentioned how difficult it had been to keep her bike upright as she struggled with a loss of dexterity that comes with old age. I have ever since forgotten her name, but never will I forget that one cold winter evening, in a small workshop in a tiny corner of the world a fledgling immigrant from Pakistan brought joy to a stranger just by volunteering a moment of his time.