Because this blog is supposed to be about experiences I've lived through, here's another one for you.
Recently, I resigned from a job for the first time. I filled out a form. I wrote a letter of resignation. I said goodbye.
Since my uncle told me we learn the most in our first year on the job, I decided to reflect. What have I learned these past 15 months with some of my favorite oldest people I know?
1. Remember the nice weird people from your childhood--in great detail. They will become good stories for the teenage girl helping you brush your teeth and dusting your furniture.
2. Say goodbye. Because one day you will come back to see them and they won't be there. While you were gone, they might have slipped, broken a hip, rushed to surgery, and didn't make it. Or they just might have gone home. Say goodbye.
3. Crack a joke while helping them fix their TV--at your own expense.
4. Smile while you administer eye drops.
5. Talk while you give shots.
6. Never underestimate the power of a warm washcloth and a good back rub.
7. When their minds are in a different reality, walk into their rooms with a smile that says you haven't seen them in 10 years and they're your favorite people in the world. One by one, they will be.
8. Listen.
9. There's no such thing as a weak heart. Just a heart so strong it needed to rest a while.
10. If you made it through the night, it's a good day.
11. Cookies and treats are a precious (even though plentiful) commodity.
12. Just standing there while an upset stomach is erupting means more than you think it does.
13. Wear gloves.
14. Plain toast and a hot cup of tea or coffee are really wonderful things.
15. Pizza and mac n cheese are timeless.
16. Memorize a poem now. Wait 90 years. Blow away all the other ladies at the skilled nursing facility you're at when you recite it word for word.
17. If you don't use it, you lose it.
18. Nothing is as reassuring or terrifying as falling. It strikes fear before it happens because of what it can do. However, once it happens, it's the safest place you can be. It's not like you can fall any further.
19. Enjoy spicy food, beans, and fresh vegetables now. They will hate your guts later on.
20. Yogurt and applesauce save lives.
21. Be obnoxiously happy when you wake them up in the morning. They laugh.
22. You start out life thinking basic colored blocks are the bomb and you leave life thinking they are the bomb. It's just in adolescence and adulthood where we get confused on the important things in life.
I will cherish the elderly people I was privileged to take care of those 15 months. Why move on? Because there are skills that I hope to learn and even more experiences to pursue. I'm looking forward to God's future for me and looking fondly at the past He's allowed me to have.
Until my work on this earth is done, I'll take these stepping stones one at a time, appreciating those elderly residents, and the 22 lessons I learned.
