Anagnostara’s Red Book

Different experiences - Volunteer Life

Author: Nelli Khachatryan

Do you know the Red Book, the one, where are included all creatures, that are rare or are one of its kind, the one, where each page is starting with “Dear Anagnostarians…” (or hello malakas). Or in other words the volunteers book of Anagnostara’s family, where each volunteer is writing before leaving the house.

As I mentioned it’s a book about rare creatures, all unique and different from each other. If you want, we can explore them a bit.

Let’s start with Venera and Georgina. First two authors of the book. Hello from 2022 if you read this. From Venera we can see some advice on what not to do and from Georgina what to do here. I really liked the parts when volunteers are giving advice to future USB members. Carol from Estonia wrote a whole essay about it, 10 things to do, it was cool to read. While exploring the book I started to search and read only the parts when they are giving advice. I wanted to do it all, I thought I found some treasure full of secrets, most of them included somethings like travel a lot, learn Greek, party a lot, take every opportunity, don’t waste time, and in some point I started to feel anxious, I found out about the book one month after coming to the house, so I started feeling like I did everything wrong, I felt like I wasted my one month, I wanted to start from the beginning.

Then reached Samrah’s and Lauras page (thanks for that). They comforted me somehow. Samrah wrote, that we are all different and we are not living things in the same way. It was something I started thinking about. After this I started to notice writings with no advices and suggestions, the one where Gaelle wrote how shy she was, the one where Zosia wrote upside down because this experience turned her life upside down, one where (I couldn’t read the name) Part of the brain was missing, one where people shared how difficult sometimes were here.

It’s all because we are in a red book, you remember?

We are different. If you don’t like partying- no need, if you are more comfortable to eat alone, eat alone, if one person is enough, don’t force yourself

Don’t force yourself, if you don’t want to speak, that’s because you are that kind of person. If you chose to stay home that night rather than joining some activities, don’t blame him/her now, he/ she has reasons that time. Just enjoy yourself.