Community - By Valerie Martinez

    Community: a feeling of fellowship with others due to sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Community is a necessity for all sorts of reasons. People can find communities everywhere: sports teams, clubs, animal shelters, neighborhoods, senior homes, families, you name it. Communities are a great way to interact and be involved with your environment and find people with interests similar to yours.

Photo: Tierra Vida Community

    Human interaction is vital. However, these days, social media has taken over. We scroll through social media like zombies. We have become unaware of the people and environment around us. As a society, we neglect the privileges we have. We can see our grandparents grow old and wiser as the years go on, see our childhood dog grow more gray hair every passing day, or see our best friend work towards their dream they thought would never come true. All these opportunities are taken for granted and replaced with a screen, so why don’t we get out of our comfort zone and get involved with the community to learn new skills and meet new people? If only there was a way to connect with people with a mindset, goals, and passions similar to yours. Lucky for you, there is. Interact with a community, whether it be a club, church group, volunteer, or more. Why would you leave your cozy home when you are safely hidden behind a screen and away from any harm? Besides, you can still connect with people through social media and keep yourself busy. So why should you join a community? According to the National Library of Medicine, “ Leading scholars in social epidemiology have suggested the importance of such analysis, arguing that being integrated into a social network may produce positive psychological states like a sense of purpose, belonging, security and self-worth.” Everybody has different needs, wants, and circumstances, but we all have something in common regardless of age: whether we like it or not, we all need company. 

Photo: Tierra Vida Community

    Although community involvement is amazing for the mind and body, there are other benefits. Volunteering is an exceptional way to help your community in all sorts of ways: Cleaning the environment, helping out with food banks, spending time with the sick and elderly, or assisting at shelters. Volunteering is an extraordinary opportunity to advance your career. On many occasions, one might feel unsure about the career they would like to major in and further learn about it. Volunteering provides a little taste of what might be incorporated into a certain job. For example, you can volunteer at a children's hospital if your plan is to become a pediatrician. You can see firsthand the requirements needed for this position. You can experience this without all of the stress and anxiety. As you gain more and more experience, your confidence will boost, and it will give you a sense of purpose. Using all of the lessons you’ve taken from this, you can then decide whether it is something you would like to pursue in the future. Also, not to mention that volunteer hours look amazing on a resume. It shows to the person that you were willing to sacrifice time and effort to participate without being paid. 

Photo: Animal Humane Society

    Western Connecticut State University has studied this mental health field, and they have shown that “ Volunteering keeps you in regular contact with others and helps you develop a solid support system, which in turn protects you against stress and depression when you’re going through challenging times.” Studies have shown that one of the key factors to the reason for depression is social isolation. Once you have built a strong connection between people in the same field as you, you can learn to be more vulnerable with others. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable is important to connect with others from a deeper level, making us feel less alone.

Photo: Children's Wisconsin

    There are great deals of benefits from getting involved with your community. Gaining experience, learning a new skill, meeting new people, bettering your mental health, and doing positive services for the community are only to name a few. It can bring a sense of fulfillment and joy to your life and, ultimately, others. Overall, I encourage you to put yourself out there and get involved with your community because there are never-ending skills to learn, memories to make, and people to meet.