Stop and smell the roses....

Not to be mean or anything, but volunteering in a hospital, or working in a hospital really makes you appreciate your health and abilities. For four hours every Friday, my OT and I visit patients with a spectra of problems, and I'm standing there thinking how badly my feet hurt from standing, or how badly I wish I was sleeping still! Some individuals can't even use their legs or wish they could get out of their beds. But are stuck there getting poked and prodded all day long.

No I'm going to preach to all of my blog followers about stopping to smell the roses and just really thinking about how fortunate we all are. We've all heard those preaches before, and they don't kick in to our sub-craniums until it hits a cord close to our hearts. Sometimes it takes an accident or for someone close to get hurt before we realize that life is short.

For me, it's volunteering in a hospital. Everyday I get a little closer to my dream of wearing in multi-colored scrubs and helping children be the best they can. When I put my Volunteer badge on and walk the corridors of Fairview, I take pride in my scrub work. I take pride that I get to run and get supplies for my OT and her patients. Because eventually I'll have my own Volunteer that I can make them do the same things. It's a process I believe all medical individuals must go through. Doing the sloppy nobody wants to do jobs until you finally get to make someone else do them. :)

Every time I am asked to get something from the clean supply closet, I smile and go get it. I come back with a smile on my face and a hitch in my giddy-up. Patients have enough crap in their lives to deal with, they don't need crabby or annoyed people helping them. So I smile, I talk to them, I make them as comfortable as they can possibly be just so they get a little happiness out of their day. Although I'm not going to lie, the patients have it pretty good. Food gets delivered to them, most have a private room. And to top it off they have cable, internet, Wii and playstations. I wish my volunteering could just be sitting there playing games with the patients! haha...

So to "not" preach. You might like to whine because you have to get up and walk to class, or go to a 9 hr. job. But just be happy you have what you have. You might wish you had a big ass speed boat and lived on lake Minnetonka in a huge mansion, but there are some people out there wishing they had a little more to eat, or a new pair of jeans because theirs have holes in them, hell even just for one more day of independence from wires and surgeries.