First Time Helper's Story...
John Currie: My First Time As A Helper With DSUK
Have you been clicking throught the DSUK website and thinking what an amazing organisation the DSUK is?
Are you wondering “How could I help?”
Are you saying to yourself that being a helper sounds like the sort of thing you feel you want to try, but “What do I have to give? Would I be any good at it?”
Well if you are, you may also be thinking “I have no experience with dealing with people with disabilities and I am a bit unsure how I would feel and cope.”
This is exactly how I felt before my first trip! I was someone who was really curious but too afraid to ask, who wanted to know who was behind the disability but was too afraid to ask, wanted to ask all the questions all curious people want to know but was too afraid to ask.
DSUK solved all this!
A few years back I was on a training course and the trainer was talking about the four stages to learning a new skill:
Unconscious Incompetence:
- You don’t know how bad you are at something.
Conscious Incompetence:
- You are thrown into a situation and suddenly realise how bad you are at it.
Conscious Competence:
- You have learned the skill and know you can now do it.
Unconscious Competence:
- You no longer have to think about doing the skill, it just happens naturally.
What has this go to do with being a volunteer helper with DSUK? Well, when you turn up at the airport and meet ten new skiers, and various instructors and other helpers, you are quickly aware of your incompetence! “Erm, what do I do, how can I help, who is the best person to ask?” Very quickly, however, you realise that we’re all in this together and by mucking in we’re eventually on the plane and everyone is looking forward to the trip.
Skiers, helpers and instructors alike give great advice on how to help people with a disability need... ‘just talk normally’, ‘I’m fine thanks, if I need help I’ll ask’, ‘can you go into my bag and get my ski gloves’. All straightforward - and no mystery once you are there.
Very quickly you get the basics and, as in life, you learn as you go along with, of course, a few surprises on the way.
Was I reaching conscious competence? Perhaps. A few days into the holiday and I was starting to feel much more relaxed about the whole thing and having a really good time.
It was the last stage of learning a new skill which for me was the best part of being on a DSUK trip. Having gone through the ‘what am I going to do?’ to ‘what am I doing!!!’, then ‘I think I know what I am doing!!?!?!’, finally the best bit of the trip happened.
I had been sitting in the bar having a drink with skiers, helpers and instructors for about three hours when something suddenly occurred to me. I couldn’t see instructor badges, I couldn’t see helpers who had given up a week of their time, I couldn’t see wheelchairs, I couldn’t see people with Downs Syndrome, I couldn’t see people with Cerebral Palsy.
What could I see? Friends. Friends - who I was on holiday with. Friends - having a great time. Friends who were all just people, not labels. Friends - who I wanted to be with! Totally unconscious competence.
That is when I realised I wanted to come back for more.
What a way to ski! A great bunch of people, from all walks of life, with a variety of backgrounds, with interesting stories, some funny, some sad, but all with a gritty determination to get the most out of life and enjoy a ski holiday.
So, when reading the DSUK Yearbook you think that you want to come and help them, but are unsure how you may cope with the whole thing, don’t worry.
You may have to get through the first three stages of learning a new skill, but when you hit that fourth stage you will realise how much fun you are having, how many new friends you are making, and the enormous fulfillment you are experiencing.
Don’t take my word for it! Get yourself signed up for a trip – I look forward to seeing you there!
John Currie
Volunteer Helper
