My Main Motivation
动力所在
When I started university in London, it was quite a shock coming from a small village in Sussex to a big city. You see so many homeless people and you never know how to act. Do you talk to them, ignore them, walk away, give them money? To be honest, I knew nothing about homeless people and they kind of scared me. You hear all these stories that they’re alcoholics, high on drugs and thieves.
刚到伦敦读大学时，从萨塞克斯的一个小镇来到大城市的转变确实让我很震惊。你会看见很多露宿者，却根本不知道要怎样做。你会跟他们聊天，无视他们，走开还是给他们钱？说实话，我对露宿者一无所知，还觉得他们挺吓人的。你听过这些故事——他们是酒鬼，因吸毒而神智恍惚，或者是小偷什么的。
A friend was involved in a project with homeless people so I decided to go along one week. Every Sunday evening, a group of students make sandwiches in the student halls and then drive to Holborn to hand them out. Initially, I imagined we’d just go, hand out the food and leave, but we actually stand around for about an hour talking to them and hearing their stories.
我的一个朋友参加了一个帮助露宿者的计划，所以我决定找一个星期跟着去。每个周日晚上，一群学生会在学生大厅里做三明治，然后开车到霍尔本区派发。起初我以为我们只需要去到那里，派完食物就离开。但实际上我们在那里待了差不多一个小时，跟他们聊天，聆听他们的故事。
The main thing I have realised is that homeless people are real people with amazing experiences. Sometimes you just can’t believe the reasons for them being homeless, but there are good stories, too. There was a guy that kept saying that he had his name on a housing list and that he had a job as a road sweeper. I thought it was all talk and then he came along one week and said: “I’m just coming along to say bye; I’ve got myself a place.” It was amazing and really nice that he remembered us and came back to tell us. It’s very satisfying when good things like that happen.
我认识到露宿者也是有血有肉的人，他们有着非凡的经历。有时候，他们露宿街头的原因简直让人难以置信；当然也有好故事。有这么一个男人总是说自己是一名街道清扫工，住房救济名单上有他的名字。我以为他只是说说而已，但是有一个星期他回来说：“我只是顺道过来说再见，我找到落脚点了。”他记得我们，还回来告诉我们这个消息，这实在是太棒了。每当发生这样的好事，我都会感到很满足。
Getting More Involved
进一步投入
After a year of helping out, they asked me if I wanted to get a bit more involved, so now I organise everything. I make sure there are people to do the shopping, the bus is going to turn up and that we’ve got a driver. Next year I’ll be doing even more when I become the coordinator of the university’s Community Action Group, which incorporates all sorts of volunteering projects. Initially, boosting my CV didn’t even cross my mind; I just wanted to interact with homeless people, but being in charge of the whole thing is going to be a much bigger job.
在那里帮忙了一年后，他们问我想不想进一步参与其中，于是现在所有事情都由我组织。我要确保有人负责购物，公交车会按时到达，还得有一个驾驶员。明年等我当上学校社区行动组的协调员负责组织协调全部志愿计划后，我将有更多事情要做。起初，我从没想过这会丰富自己的简历；我只想与露宿者交流，然而负责所有事情将会是一项更庞大的工作。
Working on this project has encouraged me to stay connected with homeless people in the future. I’m training to be a doctor, and I can see myself working in specialist surgeries for homeless people eventually. I’ve seen some doctors freak out when a homeless person comes in to A&E (Accident and Emergency). They don’t know where to start—they would normally ask questions like: “Where do you live?” or “What did you do yesterday?” but how can you converse like this with a homeless person? From that point of view, it has been very useful for me to become comfortable talking to people in all sorts of situations.
参与这个计划鼓励我将来与露宿者保持沟通。我正在接受医生培训，我能想象自己最终为露宿者进行外科手术的情景。当露宿者来到急症室时，我见过一些医生很慌张。他们不知道从何开始——他们平时会问这类问题：“你住在哪里？”或“你昨天做了什么？”但你怎么能跟一个露宿者说这些呢？从这个角度看，我的经历对我很有帮助，它让我在任何情况下都能自如地跟人交谈。
Fitting It into My Life
工作生活两不误
Until someone referred to me as a volunteer, I’d never really thought of myself as one! Young people don’t want to volunteer because it sounds like what old ladies do—that is what I think of volunteering, even though I’m doing it myself. I guess the key is to find something you enjoy that will fit into your life—most people aren’t aware of the different ways you can volunteer in life.
直到有人说我是一个志愿者，我才意识到自己是其中一员！年轻人不想从事志愿工作是因为这听起来像是老妇人做的事——我确实是那样想的，虽然自己正在做志愿工作。我认为关键是找出可以融入你生活、并且是你喜欢做的事情——大多数人没有意识到生活中有很多不同途径可以从事志愿工作。
I’d definitely encourage other young people to start volunteering and try to make them realise that it doesn’t have to be an enormous commitment. We’re very adamant that volunteers can come once, twice, every week, whatever suits them. Most people don’t want commitment and at the end of the day we are all pretty selfish, so it has to be flexible.
我绝对鼓励其他年轻人开始志愿工作，我也想让他们知道当志愿者不一定要承担巨大的责任。我们一直认为志愿者可以每周来一次或两次，只要适合他们就行了。大多数人不想承担重任，归根到底，我们都是很自私的，所以志愿时间一定要灵活。
Getting More than I Bargained For
额外收获
What’s more, I made a lot of friends during my volunteering. I never imagined when I first took this on that I’d find a group of brilliant friends, but I have discovered that volunteering is a great way to meet people. All of my best friends through university have been made through the project—we all have the same outlook on life and we’re all willing to give two hours a week. It’s not much to give and you get so much out of it personally.
另外，我在当志愿者期间交到了很多朋友。刚开始参加志愿工作时，我从未想过自己会交到一群那么棒的朋友，但我发现当志愿者是认识人的好方法。我在大学的好朋友都是在参与（志愿）计划时认识的——我们对生活都有同样的看法，而且都愿意每个星期抽出两小时。你无需付出很多，却可以从中收获良多。