A bad Tuesday at the food bank taught me something about asking for help

I was volunteering at our local food bank last Tuesday, and we got slammed. A truck with a huge donation came in late, and we had to sort it all before closing. I was trying to move these heavy boxes of canned goods by myself, getting really frustrated and tired. Another volunteer, a guy named Mike, just walked over and said, 'Hey, let's get this together.' We made a line and passed the boxes down. It took ten minutes instead of an hour. I always thought asking for help was a sign I couldn't handle my job, but seeing how fast we got it done as a team changed that. How do you guys get past the feeling that you have to do everything alone?

3 comments

3 Comments

jesse_nguyen3mo ago

Pride is a terrible forklift.

wendy_park763mo ago

Oof, @jesse_nguyen, I felt that.

janab821mo ago

That forklift thing reminded me of this time my friend tried to move a couch with a dolly that had a squeaky wheel. He spent like twenty minutes trying to fix it with WD-40 and a rubber mallet, loudly cursing the whole time. By the time he got it inside the apartment, the couch had already ripped the wallpaper off the hallway. Pride is definitely a terrible forklift, but a squeaky wheel is a close second.