Project Infinity Journal

The benefits that come from helping others are recognition from others and yourself and also making new friendships. For some people recognition is all they need and they don’t need the gifts, knowing that they have just helped someone is much more satisfying and self healing. The benefits if helping also affect your health. Studies have shown that people who volunteer and help others were happier and in better physical and mental health and had less depression than people who were less likely to help others.

I have always liked to put myself into situations where I would have to talk and mingle with people. Joining activities in and out of school and sports gave me the experience of being around people and being able to meet new people. But also volunteering and being able to help people have been something that I have also liked doing. I know I like helping people based on experiences. Not all situations will be good ones but you just have to learn from the hard situations and just continue to help others.

My interview with my Aunty who is a registered nurse at Kapiolani has answered my questions about what the jobs of nurses are. She has also informed me about what I will encounter when working with patients, customers, or people on any job. When working with people for volunteering, or for a job, there will be those days where you might not be having a great day or a patient is very uncooperative. You might experience those on a daily basis but you can’t let that get to you and you just have to stay friendly and courteous. I have made a visit to Fern Elementary School and I volunteered to work with the students at an after school program. Waiting to get started I observed an A+ staff member; she handled the children and their parents if they had any questions. She stayed nice and involved with each child. I had observed that you need to be able to care for each student needs, and you need to listen to what they have to say.

At the A+ I specifically was assigned to work with Kindergarteners and First graders. There I was with a bunch of little kids doing arts and crafts, playing games and helping them with homework. I helped lead an arts and crafts project, where the students were making a water play day flyer, many students were engaged in doing the project and they came to ask us for help with drawing a picture or putting glitter on their papers. But then again there were a couple of shy students which I had to care for and help but more importantly I had to make them feel a bit more comfortable and get them engaged in the art project. We played a simple ball game and it started to get boring, but I knew I couldn’t show that I was not enjoying myself to the kids so I just kept playing the game and smiling and laughing at times just so the kids wouldn’t see that I was getting bored.

With both answers from my interview with my aunty and volunteering and working with the children at the after school program I have made many observations. With kids I noticed that you have to be attentive to each child and working with children is much more different than working with high school students or adults. When you meet a child you have to be nice to them, but when you meet an adult you just need to prove to that person that you know what you’re doing and you will get things done. To be able to work with people you need to have good communication skills, very friendly and caring, and you have to be able to work with all kinds of people because you will be meeting new people all of the time and building friendships. This is a true passion because I do like helping people and putting smiles on their faces and I would like to continue to meet new people and care for their needs even if that means that there will be days that won’t be good.