Up's and Down's...

First the down.  Both of the individuals I've been volunteering with passed away last week.  I got a call early in the morning that they were gone.  At first I didn't know how to react, I was just sort of numb.  They weren't family and I hadn't known them for long, but I liked them.  I learned about their lives before being admitted into hospice care... favorite colors, foods, music, fond memories, funny stories.  In the short time I had spent with them I go to know them.  After the numbness subsided the guilt settled in.  I slacked off last week to recover from a cold and decided to skip my visits with them.  The reason I was volunteering was because they had no family to keep them company, no one to just sit by their side.  Some days that was all I did; show up, give them a hug, then plop down next to their bed in case they decided they wanted to talk.  Some days we did talk, and some times those talks made very little sense, and some days I just sat quietly and thought.  I feel guilty because I worry that their last week was lonely... Perhaps I'm over-estimating the effect of my presence.

The up's.  I got an "A" on my first philosophy paper!  I was stressed about the subject matter and felt that I failed to address all of the requirements of the assignment, but what a relief.  My teacher even left a little note on the last page about finding my blog.  I posted a rough draft of my paper briefly to let a friend read over and critique and my teacher stumbled across my blog, he even wished me luck in achieving my goals.  It was pretty cool.

My psych advisor is sponsoring a Psi Beta chapter at PSC and she invited me to join.  I'm hoping that Psi Beta will give me the chance to dig deeper into my major and add depth to my EC's.  I've never joined a student organization other than sports/band/newspaper in Highschool so this should be fun.

I met some really cool Chinese foreign exchange students on Saturday at a hospice event.  They've been here for about a month and it was an absolute blast to talk with them.  I learned some interesting stuff about their culture and shared some stuff about American culture.  I agreed to help them with their English and show them some of the area in exchange for some language lessons and home-cooked Chinese cuisine.  I'm feeling a semester off for a visit to China...  I also got invited to a hospice dinner with all of the local physicians who refer patients to hospice, which is an awesome chance to meet some doctors to shadow.