Today, I was supposed to go in to volunteer again from 10am-4pm but I got sick the night before and wasn't able to come in. It surprised me how disappointed I was when I couldn't come in. But it just made me even more excited for the future and what is yet to come! I was really sad I wasn't able to go in but food poisoning probably wouldn't have made it as fun and enjoyable as it is. So instead I just stayed in bed all day to recover and looked forward to the next time I would be able to come in!
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Today, I went into the Wellness Connection for the third time. Just like any other day, it was different and I never know what to expect! I came in and before we started working on anything, Sadie had a meeting with Enrique, who goes over their website and is apart of their tech team! I was fortunate enough to listen in on the meeting. I've listened in on meetings before but with my dad and he works at Carfax...so it's safe to say I had some trouble following along. But with the meeting I listened in on with Sadie and Enrique, it was so easy and so interesting to follow along. He put together a powerpoint with how their business is doing online. One slide was how many visitors they've had from 2 weeks prior in April till now and the others contained things like how people are finding them, whether they're using their phone or computer, what search engine they're using and how all of these have compared to two weeks ago to now. It was so interesting to see a "behind the scenes" of how everything works and what they try to focus on to improve their company. It's amazing how everything plays together. After the meeting, I put information about different people Sadie has talked to from different churches and schools to contact on a website. It was really fun to be able to work with a website and understand more of it. Being in charge of something and finishing it is always an accomplishment, as well! I can't wait to go back later this week!!I finally got that whole "stressing out over my outfit" thing under control this morning. I wore an outfit similar to Tuesday and again I was glad I did. I came in to the office again today and was still greeted in the same friendly way. I walked back to Sadie's desk and got to help her set up for their "Lunch and Learn" that they were having at 11:30am. We set up food, water, papers with information about the presentation and the computers that were needed. For those of you that don't know, the Wellness Connection's "Lunch and Learn" is several different types of seminars presented by the staff about topics that are useful and informative to different types of psychologists, social workers and counselors. The one that was presented today by Susan McCormick, the founder of the Wellness Connection Center, was called "A Part of Me is Worried." Since Sadie and I helped set up, I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to her presentation and I was truly amazed. She made a powerpoint and showed certain clips from the movie, "Inside Out" which so happens to be one of my favorite movies so it's safe to say I was thoroughly enjoying myself. She went into detail about each person's core memories and how that relates to their reactions, behavior and personality. Every feeling and experience that a person has, no matter how good or bad it may seem, makes a person exactly who they are. As much as people want to demolish any feeling that they think is unnecessary or that causes problems, it's needed to make people exactly who they are. If the experiences or emotions are taken away, it makes the person completely different. She went way more into detail and gave a case study as an example but overall, it was an amazing experience. Susan went through tough times within her family and started the Wellness Connection Center due to those things that happened to her. She took those experiences and took something from them. She has become so successful from the work she has done by the inspirations of her experiences and has won many awards for everything she has done personally and for the Wellness Connection Center. She is even making a graduation speech for John Champe High School, which makes me extremely jealous considering she won't be speaking at Freedom High School's graduation. I took away a lot from that presentation and not just the knowledge that she taught me. I took away more inspiration to be going into a Social Work major by seeing the passion in her and everyone else. I share similar passions but I'm not quite up to par in my knowledge and experience with it all yet. Also, I took away more hope for the future. Susan has gone through WAY more than I have but she still pushes through and makes the most out of everything she does and experiences. Being able to meet her after her presentation made me even more excited. After the workshop, I helped clean up and then did a few more things that Sadie needed to get done. It's hard to believe that I finished my second day of volunteering and I've already learned so much...WAY more than I ever have in any of my high school classes. It's safe to say that the anxiety I feel towards the future is filled with not only fear but excitement. It's an amazing experience so far and I can't thank Sadie enough for letting me tag along in what she does day to day!Today, I officially started volunteering for my Capstone project at the Wellness Connection Center. The first existential crisis I had began with what in the world I was going to wear. I am not a high maintenance person at all; I like to go throughout my days with little to no makeup, all natural curly hair and some casual clothes or running shorts, depending on the setting. I spend about 20-30 minutes getting ready each day; this is including washing my face, brushing my teeth, showering, changing, etc. And then this morning rolled around...and I have never spent so long to get ready and decide what to wear so this was definitely serious business. I ended up just keeping it simple with a casual shirt, jeans and booties and I was definitely glad I did. Since I have already had prior experience coming into the Wellness Connection Center, I knew exactly where to go. But walking in, it felt like I was in a completely different environment but in such a good way. Sadie came out to introduce herself and show me where she works. Her desk included a huge Mac computer, her Macbook laptop, another computer and papers pinned on her wall. She started out by explaining what she would be doing for the day, since her days are all different. We spent some time at her desk, doing whatever it was she needed done. I helped her make a flyer to put up in the office, made copies of papers that she needed and then I stuffed folders with papers of information regarding the Wellness Connection Center. After that, with the folders that I had stuffed, we went to a Kids Day Care Center and then to the Stone Springs Hospital to hand out these folders. She does these trips often so other hospitals, medical places. schools and day care centers can refer their patients back to the Wellness Connection Center for any psychiatrist, therapist, counseling or other mental health services that may be needed. We handed out as many folders as we had before going back to the office. We then got to watch a counselor new to the Wellness Connection Center make her video about herself to put on their website so that clients can know more about someone before going in to talk to them. It was really interesting to watch because when I was looking for someone to talk to when coming to the Wellness Connection, I had watched tons of those videos to see who would be a good fit for me for therapy. So watching a "behind the scenes" of one of those videos was really cool to see. Overall, the experience of my first time volunteering there was more than what I was expecting. Time flew by so quickly and I'm already looking forward to the next time that I will be coming in. The whole staff is always very friendly and respectful to everyone in the office and all of their clients. One thing I noticed is that they don't treat the people coming in like customers; they welcome everyone with open arms and try so hard to improve their lives and well beings. It was amazing to see how much everyone loved their jobs and what they were doing. Nobody seemed miserable or watching the clock to count down when they would get to leave. It was definitely more than I expected and I cant't wait to go back in on Thursday! |
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