Everyone Has an Impact

In this big world sometimes we don't realize how far a simple gesture can go. You could change a person's day just by saying hi to them. It is hard to realize how big of an impact you may have on other people. This past weekend my parents attended a bar mitzvah and they shared a very important story with me. At the ceremony, the boy expressed the impact we all can have on each other's lives and the lesson he learned. He said that at his school he became very good friends with this one boy, but the next year he decided not to talk to him. His mother heard the news and she was in shock. She told her son that he needs to say hi to that boy and there is no reason not to when they had been such good friends. One day the boy said hi to his old friend. At the end of the school day the other boy exclaimed to his mom, "he said hi to me!" The boy was so excited by a simple hello. I feel that this story is very easy to relate to. There are very friendly students in the hallway that say hi or simply ask how I am doing and it really does make a difference in my day. It feels good when people care about how you are feeling that day. You never know how someone is feeling that day or what they are going through. Even the little things can turn a person's day around. Recently in our iQuest class, we decided to express our gratitude in various ways. In my group, we wrote positive messages on sticky notes and left them on cars in the parking lot. Then when the school day was over, students would see a note that would make their day a little brighter! We wanted to impact more than one person and that is why we decided to write a lot of different sticky notes. 

After the group activity in our class, I did an act of kindness on my own. I chose to make a card and have everyone at my work sign it for our new manager. I currently work at Vitality Bowls. Within a small time frame, he has already improved many different aspects of our store and we all let him know that we appreciate his work. He is very creative and brings new ideas to the store.  Managers have a lot to handle and I thought we should let him know that we are very thankful for all of his hard work. I know that when I get positive feedback at work it makes me feel great and that I am doing my job to the best of my ability. That is why I thought it would be nice to do that for someone else!

Internship Update

Since last September I have been interning at our local hospital for four hours twice a week. I love seeing the different medical procedures first hand. I have witnessed the insertion of PICC lines on patients, vitals being taken, IVs, patients being discharged, and reports of all the patients in the hospital. I have delivered a specimen to the lab, towels, blankets, and snacks to patients. Additionally, I've learned how to answer patient calls from the rooms, page nurses, and I have copied down the hospital schedule. Everyone there is extremely friendly and they all tell me how much I am going to love being a nurse. It is very inspiring to be involved in a field where the workers have such a strong passion for their jobs. There is an abundance of people in my life that work in the medical field and it is awesome to talk to them about my experience. Now, I feel like I can relate more and understand what they are describing because I witnessed it. The best part is seeing the gratitude the patients have when they have been helped through their medical situations. However as I have seen from following the nurse, it can be hard to please every patient with a mass amount of patients that have to be cared for as well. Through these past couple of months I have discovered that I want to be involved in some hands-on activity, but not everything. It has made me look into becoming a nurse practitioner. I will be able to do a little more than a nurse, but less than a surgeon. I feel that for me it would be a perfect balance. As I continue my internship I would really enjoy watching some surgeries. I have talked to my nurse about it and it can be difficult because most surgeries are during the morning. So far the nurse has worked more weekdays and I am in school during that time. I am going to go in on the weekends that she works and ask if I could watch the surgery. The nurses want us to have as much exposure as possible, it is just a matter of my schedule working with the hospital schedule. It would be ideal if I could intern on the weekend and a patient has surgery at that time.