Reflections from our Teachers

11/6/18

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been diligently working with Circle of Friends and Full Life Care. Through Full Life Care, I spend a couple hours once a week in South Seattle with an amazing group of adults. Each of these adults are living with either physical or developmental disabilities, yet they never fail to show up with a bright smile on their face. Within the past two weeks, I’ve been given the opportunity to hear stories about the participants’ lives, both past and present. Admittingly, prior to volunteering I may have made assumptions about the types of people I would be working with; however, that immediately changed as soon as I met the participants at Full Life Care. Through my experiences thus far, I’ve learned to never misjudge people based on their living conditions and I look forward to learning more with each visit.

- Shelby C. Full Life Care

11/5/18

On October 31th, I served 3.5 hours at Merrill Garden. The work include setting up for Halloween party, serve drinks, play pool and intentionally lose the game. It was satisfying and comfortable to stay with seniors, since they have such a low expectation on you. They would be happy as long you talk and play with they. I'm looking forward to learn more broad games and losing games intentionally.

-Zonglin W. Merrill Gardens

11/5/18

When you think of volunteering, you usually think of giving: giving your time, your skills, your precious effort that you have so little of in college. But what you don’t think of is how much you get. When I started volunteering at Circle of Friends and the Recovery Café, I didn’t realize how much I could learn. In my short time here, I’ve met a homeless man with a different shoe on each foot with two college degrees. I’ve met a woman who’s recovered from a coma that doctors said she’d never wake up from. I’ve met so many amazing and tenacious people, and every single one of them has been so unabashedly honest about their experiences, so eager to share their knowledge, that I often wake up the next morning thinking about them. Thanks to this community, I’ve broadened my perspective so much. I’m not claiming to understand their experiences, or to be able to relate, but they still have made a profound and permanent impact on the way I see the world.

-Aaron R. Recovery Cafe