Today, as in a dream, I look back on my life as a volunteer, on what I have learned and what it has taught me about the world. At once I am reminded of what the Red Cross meant to me as a child and young person, and what it now means to me as an adult, after twenty years' personal and professional experience. My experience as a volunteer has led me to a post in which I am both a professional and an individual working as a volunteer (National First-aid Director of the Colombian Red Cross Society). The following thoughts arise from that experience.