Time is Flying

Jon's shot of the Grand Teton's

Time has flown. It's uncanny how it's been five weeks since the beginning of spring semester, and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down. Hopefully, with the remaining time we have volunteering at the Kitchen Clinic, we will continue to make a difference in the lives of the staff, and the the visitors. While we still haven't officially decided how we will spend our allotted budget, we hope we can provide something to the clinic that will have a lasting effect. I personally don't think it'll be what we spend money on that'll make the largest impact, but how we treat the visitors and the staff. If we can leave knowing that we made a sick patient smile, or showed the value of hard work, maybe it'll rub off on those visitors and instill a need to serve in within them. Giving is always so much greater than receiving.

With a busier schedule than last semester, I haven't had the opportunity to go the Kitchen Clinic personally yet; however, the other members of my group have. My plan is to begin serving beginning next week during some morning free time I have. It'll be nice to get back into the swing of things and let the staff know that I'm still around. Last semester I spent my time as an escort for the patients. In that position, I escorted patients from the waiting room, to the clinic rooms; where I would take their blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. Towards the end of last semester, I had a chance to try my hand at more administrative work, where I checked the voicemails, checked medicare statuses, and general administrative work. From what I've heard, this semester, I'll be doing a variety of both Clinic and office work, which should be a nice switch up. 

Devil's Tower rises 1,267 feet off
the valley floor.

During Summit class, one activity stood out to me, camping. Camping is my all time favorite activity, I can't get enough of being immersed in the outdoors. Last summer, my family took a 5,000 mile camping trip across the upper Midwest, visiting the Badlands, Black Hills, Devils Tower, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. Over the course of the trip I took 3,000 pictures, and none of them could do justice to the reality that is actually standing in front of the Grand Teton. Camping has always been fun to me, and is definitely going to be my favorite part of the semester. 

Last semester I think I improved my leadership abilities a lot, through both the working at the Kitchen Clinic, and through my Architecture Major. It's a bit intimidating to lead somebody who is often time much older than you to a patient room, and possibly a bit embarrassing to the patient to have a kid taking their vitals. It's those facts that I think forced me to be a stronger leader when directing people into their clinic rooms by showing the respect and care as I did my job. My Architecture major has placed me in a position of leadership, especially when I'm talking to an underclassmen about their design, or working on drawings as apart of a team in my own studio. I'm not really sure how I'll adapt my abilities for my own Summit Park group yet, but I think it'll become clear very soon as we progress further into the semester.

So far, this semester has been great. I've enjoyed working on my Architecture projects, had fun in our Summit class meetings, and I'm looking forward to starting my volunteer work next week at the clinic. Before I know it, the semester will be over and I'll be looking at a new year at Drury, and maybe with any luck we'll keep making a difference at the clinic.