Blog #5

       Even though this is my last blog, I am going to continue helping Shirley and Marylin. I am really close to each of them and I love helping them.
       Over my blogging expierence I have recognized how perception can be harmful to starting relationships with people. You can not assume people will treat you a certain way or will act a certain way. I am glad Marylin and Shirely have shown me this. My relationships with them also showed me how listening impacts relationships.
        From now on I will try to not let precoceived notions of people get in my way. I will also work on listening actively to help strengthen my relationship.

Blog #4

       When I have worked with Shirley and Marylin I have found

 that they love having me as company. Because they both live

alone, they do not always have someone there to talk to, so when I

come over they love to talk.They both always ask me about school

and we always talk about what is going on in theirs lives. Shirley

always asks me about my family and how my brother is doing with 

 his trap shooting, and Marylin and I always talk about school.

        I have found that active listening is very important when I am

with them. I help them fill in the social aspect of their lives,

therefore it's very important for me to actively listen so I can

respond to them appropriately. I think this is why I have strong

relationships with them and why they trust me helping them.

 Because I know that my listening has strengthened my

relationships to them, I know how important good communication

in the form of active listening is to relationships. 

Blog #3

              Another lady I help out is, Marylin, we both attend the same church. She is in her late 80s and lives alone like Shirley. Marylin can not drive any longer and needs help getting around. I usually take her to the grocery store, drug store, or the doctors. I think Marylin is the cutest old lady ever. She is only about 5 feet tall and spunky. We get along really well.
               One day I took her to the eye doctors to get new glasses, because she needed a new perscription. While we were waiting for them to get the glasses made, we sat where people select the frames they want. A woman in her 20s was selecting glasses Marylin pointed her out to me. And stated, loudly enough for the woman to hear her, "Look at all her tattoos". Surprisingly enough Marylin's tone was not one of judgement, but on of interest. I think her tone was the important thing. If she had sounded judegmental I think it may have really upset the girl. Instead, the woman ended up coming up to us and showing us her tattoos and telling us about them. Marylin shattered my preconceived perception on the elderly.   I was completely shocked to find that Marylin thinks tattoos are cool I thought that she would look down upon tattoos something the younger generation like and think are cool. After I told her I was getting one, she did not look at me any differently than before. Marylin also showed me how important tone is especially if you are talking about someone you do not know. Tone in my opinion is the most important part of oral communication, because it shapes the reactions you get from people.   

Blog #2

           
             Every Friday, I go over to Shirley's apartment. She is 86 and has a hard time completing tasks  around her apartment. I help her
clean and do her laundry. We also sit and just talk. How I started helping Shirley was through my grandmother. She knows that I like
to help people and like to volunteer. Her best friend, Barb's mother-in-law, was having some issue living alone and taking care of her
 apartment, so my grandmother gave her my number.

              Before I began helping Shirley, he daughter-in-law, Barb, warned me that she could be really hard to get along with. To say the least I was a little nervous that she was not going to like me and I was not going to enjoy helping her. This preconceived perception that I had of her was making me wary of having a relationship with her.
             
             I was completely surprised how well we get along though. She has never gotten frustrated with me and is really kind. She always asks me about school and my family. She is happy that I am there to help, otherwise she could not get her stuff done. I wish that I had not let what someone else told me affect my perception of her before I even met her.

          I now know that I need to meet the person before I make a judgement on them. Working with Shirley showed my that making preconceived jugements on someone could affect you relationship with that person especially if you go in a treat them a certain way before you get to know them. I used this when I came to college and heared about professors. I heard bad things about professors, but when I got in their class I liked them and didn't have a bad time in their class.

Blog 1

      I hope that after this expierence I will be able to relate more to a different demographic that differs greatly from mine. Also, I want to be able to better communicate with people that are different from me and communicate different than I do. I think that the elderly might think that I am like the stereotype that they probably have in their mind of a teenager, lazy, disrepectful, and maybe disinterested. Because I am not going to a site, but helping out two elderly women at their homes instead, what I know is that Shirley is 86 and lives alone in an apartment, where she needs assistance is house work. Marylin is also in her late 80s and lives alone, and she needs help getting to grocery stores and the doctors. I was told Shirley can sometimes be difficult and forgetful, and she may be hard to get along with. I knew Marylin from church and only met her a few times, but I knew she was super sweet and adorable. I am a history major and so being able to be with people who lived through a lot of big historical events will be cool to hear what they know about it.