On Tuesday afternoon our class hopped onto the bus with books in our hands feeling super anxious and nervous. For some reason, we got dropped off around 2 minutes away from the actual place we were going. We all jumped off the bus and started walking towards Dixon House. We waited outside as the woman greeted us in. I could feel sweat starting to come in. It was really warm in there, I really thought I was going to break out in sweat in a moment. We went over there for national share a story month, that’s why we read books to them.
Everyone started splitting ways and going to all the elderly's. I was stuck standing in the middle of the room not knowing where to go. I was really scared at the time since I didn’t have that many experiences with elderlies. I followed Bella as she started reading a book to one of the old ladies sitting in the lounge, she didn’t talk much. One of the workers told me to read to the one right next to Bella so I started reading. The woman Bella was reading to start looking towards my book and not hers so Bella just started drifting away as she felt pretty offended. But I guess I wasn’t surprised because my book was definitely better. All of the old people were doing different things and they all looked like they had different needs too. One was drinking out of a sippy cup, one was crying, one was sleeping, WHILE I WAS READING! After I had finished reading the book I had no idea what I was going to say because none of them really talked so I just said bye hoping they wouldn’t mind. I looked around the room and ran to Emma, she looked just as hopeless as I did. We both walked around the room to find somewhere else to read. We saw Carter and Caiden reading to these really nice-looking ladies at the table. We walked over and sat down as we listened to Carter read a really tiny and boring book. The ladies looked just as bored but they still made sure that they looked interested.
For the rest of the time we were there I felt more confident as I read to more people. They seemed really happy that we were there to read to them which made all of our days. In the end, we all got some baking that the polytech made. All the kids went to one table to chat with each other and tell each other how it was going so far, while I was sitting here not being able to finish my very iced biscuit. Then it was finally time to leave. We all said our goodbyes and grabbed a bar of chocolate on the way out. When we got back to school everyone was really happy and excited. All of us wanted to go back there and read to them again. It was such an amazing experience.
How it made me feel.
I was really scared at first and I was sweating from top to bottom. But as the day went on I got way more confident and It started to end up being really fun.
What I enjoyed the most. I really enjoyed it when some of them shared stories and talked about them and their lives. It was a great way to learn about them and to connect with them too.
What I learned from it.
One thing that I learned from this trip was not to take food for granted because all of us were really excited about the food. But to be honest, in the end the food wasn’t even good and hanging out with the eldery’s was such a good experience. And next time I would definitely choose hanging out with them instead of the food!
