"You realise very quickly that every call matters"

It was a family member, from a different uni, who recommended I join Nightline. He said it was the best thing he had ever done, and that was what sold me. Training was hard, and not what I expected, but I made it through, and since my first duty I never looked back.

Being a Nightline volunteer isn't easy. There are the nights you get no calls and wonder what you are doing there, and there are the nights when the phone never stops and you wonder how you're going to make your lecture the next morning. There are calls that are less than savoury, and calls that are downright abusive. There are entire duties that might make you wonder why you even bother.

But you do bother, over and over again, because you realise very quickly that every call matters, and because when you are there for someone who has no one else to talk to, when you can be a friendly ear to the friendless, an ear for the frightened, the lost, the happy, the hopeless, the tired, the calm, the philosophical, the angry, the abused, the ashamed - because then it doesn't matter that it's four am, because being there for someone is timeless and essential and amazing.

My Nightline friends are my most special, because we are bonded by this shared sense of recognition that no-one is ok all the time. We've been through a lot together, and there's no group of people who will listen, understand, safeguard and support better than them.

Being a Nightliner isn't about recognition or public reward - that's the thing about anonymity. Your friends, classmates and lecturers aren't going to tell you that what you do is amazing. It's not about feeling good about yourself, or patting yourself on the back. If anything, the opposite is true. Being a Nightliner is recognising that, at times, we are all weak; we all behave badly; we all have fears; we all have secrets; we all have things we couldn't or wouldn't share with others. If you are someone who can see this and say 'I am here, without judgement or advice, for you to talk to' then join Nightline, because it will be the best thing you ever do.

-Harriet, Edinburgh Nightline
 
Back to volunteer experience page