To say that I have been busy is an understatement. I had the assumption that after my exams had finished I would be graced with time to focus on this blog, to work on my university application and to get ahead in A2 work, along with socialising with my friends and also complete some more work experience. Well it turns out that in doing all of this I have lost track of time and I have only just realised how much I have neglected this blog, and for that I apologise.
So since my last post I have continued with my MOOC on the clinical psychology of children and young adults, and I have learnt so much about the formation of mental illnesses and how complex they are. I also feel as if through this MOOC I have significantly improved my own independent learning skills.
However, my voluntary work is what is continuing to inspire me. Each week I am continuing to strengthen the bonds and friendships I am making with the children, whilst learning more and more about their personal disabilities and challenges, along with getting to know their parents. On Friday we had a special skills ice skating lesson, and as well as improving my own skating ability, I learnt that I have hugely impacted on particular boys life. The boy is one who I looked after on my first week of volunteering and he suffers from dyspraxia. Despite not being paired with him that week, he still insisted on being paired with me, and even left the volunteer who was initially paired with him to skate with me, continuously hugging me and telling me that I am his favourite. Whilst this may just be a phase, I can help but feel almost a sense of accomplishment, if not at least a huge humbling feeling that I have influenced this boy's life so much, that he wants to work with me every week (last week when I was paired with him he danced around the seating area in the ice rink with excitement and shouting "YES I GET TO WORK WITH ELLIE") To see a child respond in that way is extremely inspiring, to know that you alone can improve their mood that significantly proves to me alone why I do this voluntary work. Of course it is not just this boy who inspires me, they all do. Even when we were completing the skills lesson, all of the children joined in, despite many uncomfortable glances at first, they all want to try new things, and they are all willing to do new things.
I feel that through my voluntary work I can see myself growing as a person. Not only do the children that I work with inspire me each week, but so do the incredible other volunteers who I have been able to meet along the way. Before I started this voluntary work I had a tendency to be quite shy around new people. Whether shy is the right adjective is debatable, but I was not one to go up to new people at random and create a conversation or friendship, I liked to take a slower approach, but now I have certainly become more outgoing, indefinitely more caring and my communication skills have improved immensely. I have gained a lot from my voluntary work, but maybe more so than anything I am gaining incredible memories, each week I have the chance to help these children, to improve what may have been an awful week for them, and have a great time at the same time. What more could you want?
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