Yesterday evening I once again went ice skating for my volunteer work, and this week I was asked to look after a new boy who had just joined the programme. He was extremely nervous to begin with as he said that he was not very good at ice skating, but after a few minutes of talking I convinced him to try to skate. It turned out that he was a natural, and it was clear that after about 15 minutes of skating he was having a great time. Throughout the session I continued to help him become more confident skating and introduced him to the other members and volunteers. After about an hour of skating though we decided to have a break and we headed to the arcade where a tournament of air hockey commenced,
and after many games he turned out to be the overall champion. The look on this boys face after he had beaten all of the volunteers, who are all my age (so a good 8 years older than this boy), was priceless, honestly I have never seen a boy with such a smile on his face!
The session yesterday again left me leaving with a huge satisfaction that I had improved this boy's day and that he had a great time, particularly as when his mum arrived to pick him up all he could talk about was the fact he was the air hockey champion, and that he had summoned 'the power' and learnt how to stop on the ice and learnt how to do 'lemons' on the ice (a type of skating where you move your legs in and out creating a lemon shape whilst skating forward).
However, no session goes without its challenges, due to the nature of the children we work with, and for me the most challenging part of this session was when the boy I was looking after turned to me and asked why another of the boys keeps saying "yes *his name*" to himself. I found it extremely hard to answer this question, purely for the fact that the reason why this other boy kept talking to himself was due to the fact that he suffers from severe autism, yet in no way did I intend on explaining this to the boy I was watching, as that would be 1. extremely difficult for him to fully understand and 2. result in explaining that he was to an extent ill, possibly indicating to this boy that he is to put it simply in the same boat. So I decided to just explain that maybe he liked talking to himself and that was his way of thinking. Luckily the curiosity and attention span of the child allowed an easy and quick change of subject onto harnessing magic powers to stop on the ice, but that moment alone reminded me of the challenges of working with children, and also the importance of communication skills in this area of work. If this boy had asked me this question a few months ago, I am not sure how I would have answered it and I am certainly sure that my answer would probably not been the same, so I believe that clearly shows that this voluntary work is helping me grow as a person and undeniable helping me improve my communication skills, by allowing me to relate more to different groups of people, one of the reasons why I love it so much.
*Unfortunately there will be no volunteer diaries for the next two weeks, as the ice skating sessions do not run during the holidays*
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