Friday, December 5, 2008
10am-noon
Integration
We’re currently studying personality in class (Chapter 12), and how different aspects of life affect our personality. I’ve spend so much time watching the residents at Cardinal Hill and trying to figure out who they were in their younger years, but now I wonder about who they are now. The Social-Cognitive Perspective on personality addresses how those around us mold our personality, but it never says if that molding ever stops. Is your personality still changing and being developed at age 86? Or is your personality pretty well set before then? Cardinal Hill is still a social environment, in a sense, so are the residents affected by their “peers”? For the most part, I don’t think they are. In their old age, these men and women have, for the most part, discovered “who they are.” You don’t hear about nursing home peer pressure. J These people have learned throughout their lifetime that doing and being what others want you to gets you nowhere. So, I wonder how relevant the Social-Cognitive Perspective is after you hit 75.
Introspection
I’ve spent the past semester at Cardinal Hill. Walking out the doors today knowing that I wouldn’t have to be back the next Friday was bitter sweet. It’s been hard to see so much pain, regret, and brokenness on these people’s faces. It’s broken a part of me that will always stay broken in remembrance of this experience… but I see that as a beautiful thing as well. I’ve been taught to experience as many different perspectives as possible so that I can better understand other people. I was exposed to the nursing home environment, as well as the single, working mom, as well as the mentally unsound. That’s a lot of new perspectives for me to carry. I was sad as I walked out the doors and got on my bike to head back to the dorms because I’d learned so many names and a routine for the place… but at the same time I felt such a burden lifting as I left. I have respect for those who can work in that place because I couldn’t do it. This project was called the Off-Campus Learning Experience, and that’s what I had… an experience. I want to serve in a place where it’s not just an “experience,” though. I want it to mean something to the people I’m serving. I want to be there because I choose to be, not because I have to get a slip of paper signed.
Done.
