I was born with ants in my pants and a severe aversion to doing the same thing day in and day out. So, starting in Army basic training I decided to volunteer to do new things every chance I got. The first payoff was volunteering for KP duty. I knew it meant working in the mess hall, aka kitchen, for our basic training company. The normal regimen was washing pots and pans, taking out the garbage and cleaning the grease pit. But once the Specialist Seven found out I could cook, that is what I did starting with breakfast.
After breakfast, others cleaned up as I watched the company head to the field. Lunch was C-rations, food in cans. So, once the truck was loaded and sent out to where my teammates trained, I worked on stocking the cooler and helping the Specialist with a side project where a flat of eggs was traded for car repairs.
Later that afternoon we began preparing dinner which would be served to the trainees hot via insulated mermite cans. About 4pm it started raining, and it lasted throughout the rest of the day into the night and early morning. I found out that my buddies not only got soaked but also gassed with riot gas and marched into the mud.
I, on the other hand, ate well and slept in my warm and dry bunk.
Later in basic training, some guys in suits and longer hair showed up and said they were looking for a few select soldiers to join a unit they could not tell us about, but there was an opportunity for travel around the world if we qualified. Once again, I raised my hand to find out later it was the White House Communication Agency. My first trip out of the United States was Paris, New Delhi, then Dhaka Bangladesh.
Again, volunteering worked out for me.
If you ask me, I will tell you to not be afraid. Volunteering is a great way to learn new things and meet people you might not otherwise.