What I am going to be writing about is the journey that I will be making to open up an animal sanctuary in Sylva, NC. I will be taking what many people refer to as "baby steps". I have done a lot of reading on the process of how to open an animal sanctuary but it seems to be different in everything I read. Luckily I have some time to prepare but when it comes to that I will be flying blind.
My first few objectives are going to be to volunteer at the local animal shelter for several months, to get back in school, and to figure out what to name my sanctuary (I am open to suggestions). My challenges will be, my lack of self discipline, coming up with the money for school, and my lack of time. I have been working on my self discipline little by little and I promise I still have a long way to go. I haven't started saving money for school yet, but I don't plan on enrolling until the 2013 fall semester so I have a little bit of time. Currently I am working 54 hours a week; I am scheduled at work 10 a.m -8 p.m Monday- Friday and 8 a.m -6 p.m Saturday. Sunday is my only free day and I would definitely take that day to volunteer but the shelter isn't open (Shelter hours are Monday- Saturday from 8:00 a.m to 4:30 p.m). As for the name of the sanctuary nothing has come to me yet. It seems that anything good is taken. All I know is that I want it to stand out (in a good way).
So the only time that I have available for volunteering is before work so 8 a.m- 10 a.m. Now I have to take in to consideration the amount of time it takes to get to the animal shelter and I am not lying when I say it is really far out. It will take me about 25 minutes to drive there from my apartment in town. So if I leave at 7:30 a.m I can get there by 8 a.m then I would need to leave by 9:15 a.m so that I can stop and get food before work. That gives me an hour and fifteen minutes of volunteering. Back to the self discipline issue. I have to leave by 7:30 meaning I would have to get up at 6, 6:30 at the VERY latest. Let me tell you, I seriously struggle with waking up by 8 and most of the time I fail.
Alright, baby steps. Today I emailed the shelter to find out if they have extended volunteering hours. I haven't heard back yet but hopefully I will. If they have extended volunteering hours we may be able to work out something different. If not I will try to volunteer at least two days a week. This way I am not over doing anything; I am starting out small and leaving room to grow. If they don't get back to me tomorrow I will call them on Wednesday. Hopefully I will be volunteering by next week.
Thanks for reading, please feel free to leave any suggestions for sanctuary names, or any inspiring words! I may or may not talk to you tomorrow. :)
