Volunteering day 4:
It's the 4th day and people already think I have been there for over a month. I stop by the guy with the Mets hat every now and then to see how he'd doing. I think if I end up going to see a Mets game this year, I am going to bring him back a souvenir, even if I'm not volunteering anymore. I was talking to him for a little while and since he can't walk much, he hasn't been to a game for a couple of years. Maybe I can set something up where somehow, I can get him to go. I think that might be a goal of mine, or at least come watch a game with him in his room. Some company is better than no company I always say. (Okay, fine. I don't always say that but you get the point.)
Today's make someone smile was a challenging one. I went to go pick up a patient who wasn't as you would say, happy with the service. There was a mix up with the food and hadn't received it yet. So besides being a little cranky the patient, was famished. I tried a little logic by saying, "You don't want to have just eaten if your going to go exercise." But that didn't work. She agreed but was still not a happy camper as people would say. After her physical therapy, she bought a sandwich at the cafe they have there. She was still not in a good mood so I told her that it would make my day if she was able to enjoy that sandwich. She gave me a smirk and we were off. I told her I would be taking her to the room in record time so that the warm sandwich, would still be warm when we got there. Again, a little smirk. So it was working, slowly but surely, I was breaking down the grumpy wall she had made. We get to her room and I have to Macgyver her chair around some things in the room. I tetrised her in and told her it would be my pleasure to open her sandwich box. Right after saying that I got what I was waiting for, she gives me a big smile and made a comment about how much she appreciated my enthusiasm for trying to make her enjoy her sandwich, which in turn made me very happy.
I haven't figured out what I can and can't take pictures of yet, so I decided to start small. Here I am with my volunteer lanyard and my ID. I was in the waiting part of the job, where I need to wait for them to be finished with their appointments in order to take them back after.
Kindergarten Epiphany:
I have a part time job working with a Kindergarten teacher in town. I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now and besides the really good pay, I have gained a little bit of sight as to what teachers have to put up with. It's a little more than you would think, but it's more the tedious jobs that you have to do that get to you. This isn't the epiphany I had though, what I came to realize is that I missed out on quite a bit when I was in kindergarten. Why did I miss out on a lot? Well, I will say this, English is my second language. From kindergarten until 2nd grade, I was busy learning how to read and speak English. But, enough about that. While working, I notice a lot of activities the kids in her class are doing and I become very jealous. The good thing is that I have an advantage that they won't have, which is being able to speak English and Spanish. Not to mention, I have studied French as well and have become fairly fluent. The only thing that I have trouble with I must admit is the vocabulary, but who really knows the name of everything in one language anyways.
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