Sarah Hatch  "get involved"

My Mum (who works at Tallis) has just shown me the 'Legendary Mr Dean' video on youtube and it has made me realise what I miss about my time at Tallis. I go to gigs, or gatherings, or occasionally protests and I am still genuinely surprised that they don't end up in a singalong. Instead, I am surrounded by people who have paid good money and often travelled a long way to be there but won't do more than nod their heads, even to their favourite songs. The students in the video are all clapping along, they're all joining in. Watching them, I realised that this is what I still expect but don't always find: for people to get involved. I'm sure they're not all friends, I'm sure some of them hate each other but for the duration of the song they are all enthusiastic about the same thing. No one is too cool for this.
 
After Tallis I studied English and then an MA at Sussex University. It was a relaxed and friendly university, often compared to Tallis in its ethos, but even there I was surprised to meet people who had no intention of getting involved in anything on offer outside their studies. (But why not? There's so much to do?!) In fact many friends were equally surprised by my enthusiasm for extra-curricular activities and I'm afraid to say quite bored by my attempts to drag them along to every concert or charity event I was involved in. Looking back I still feel like I didn't do enough with my time! I was disappointed to find that some musical societies were audition-only and most places went to music students (You can't just, join in? You know, for the fun of it?). Luckily a friend of mine started a concert band 'for fun' and open to all, which is still going strong 6 years later.

I'm now the 'Communication and Development Support Worker' for KeyRing, a charity that supports vulnerable adults to live independently. It's a bit of a funny job - we're a small charity so I do lots of bits and bobs, but I like the variety. It doesn't call upon a lot of the knowledge gained in my MA in 19th Century Literature and Culture, but I like to think I use the skills I developed from reading and writing critically for five years. I also volunteer for a charity which involves spending one Sunday morning a month in a kitchen in Bermondsey, cooking with a group of other volunteers. What I like about both of these things is the sense of mucking in, of getting involved in something special, and something that will sometimes go beyond what you thought you'd be doing. I miss having the time and the opportunity to just try things to see if I like them, the sense that you don't have to be the best at something to enjoy it.I live in Deptford and I love it because there are lots of little things going on, from choirs to pickle festivals. There's something happening all the time, and everyone's welcome."