Service Reflection Paper

I decided to start volunteering at the local humane society because I’ve always been really passionate about animals and wanted to start benefiting them in the community. Prior to my service I was delighted because I’ve wanted to start volunteering for years and was glad the opportunity had presented itself. Throughout my experience I learned a great deal and met a lot of new people. Even though I’ve only just started serving my time at the Fox Valley Humane Association I can truly see the difference it has made in the community.

Service. Challenge. Ethics. The motivation I have for attending a service academy can be summed up in these three words. Growing up in a military family, my life has always revolved around service, challenge and ethics. It is what is imbedded in me and it is what I strive to continue living by.

The life transition of death and dying is inevitably one with which we will all be faced; we will all experience the death of people we hold close throughout our lifetime. This paper will explore the different processes of grief including the bereavement, mourning, and sorrow individuals go through after losing someone to death. Bereavement is a period of adaptation following a life changing loss. This period encompasses mourning, which includes behaviors and rituals following a death, and the wide range of emotions that go with it. Sorrow is the state of ongoing sadness not overcome in the grieving process; though not pathological, persistent

“What has changed is our way of coping and dealing with death and dying and our dying patients.”(Kubler-Ross 109) In “On the Fear of Death” by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, she discusses the changes that have happened over the past few decades. The author believes that these changes are responsible for the increased fear of death, the rising number of emotional problems, and the greater need for understanding of and coping with the problems of death and dying. The author says, “The fact that the children are allowed to stay at home where a fatality has stricken and are in included in the talk, discussion, and fears give them the feeling that hey are not alone in the grief and give them the comfort of shared responsibility and shared mourning.” (Kubler-Ross 110) She believes that allowing the children to stay and be involved in the grieving stage prepares them gradually and

Death is a universally experienced phenomenon. In the United States alone, over 2.6 million people die each year (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). For practitioners, it is of utmost importance to better understand the process of grief to develop better interventions for bereaved individuals.

Imagine being told one day a loved one has been savagely murdered. I could not imagine being told something like that, but I have had to go through the deaths of two grandmothers at the hands of cancer. I can personally say watching someone you love day in and day out suffer is one of the hardest things a person can go through. My dad’s mom passed away before I was even born, so I am left with knowing my grandmother loved me so much but I never got to meet her. My mom’s mother passed away when I was eight years old and she was always my babysitter and loved me more than anything, but they were both taken away from me due to breast cancer.

Additionally, the women compare this grieving to the mourning process when their partner dies. Moreover, when their spouse passes away, not only are they morning a death, but they are learning how to transition into providing for their family (Sakarida, 2015).

I highly recommend this course continue to require service learning as a component of Academic Foundations. It is never a bad idea to get the students involved on campus and get them familiar with the facilities we have located on campus. Getting involved with the community and individuals active is a positive aspect of this

One thing I noticed today was that they really are stuck in times when they were younger. There was this on lady that kept telling us that everybody was sick and that she was going later. When she was talking she would talk as two different people. A few of the residents told me that they appreciate us visiting them that it makes there day especially the ones that don't have family that comes and sees them.

When I signed up for this course I did not know it was a service learning class. During the first class period, as the professor described that this course is a service learning course, I wasn’t sure about it but as the professor talked about what that service was I knew this would be a good experience for me since I have no knowledge about Alzheimer’s and Dementia. When she told us we would be spending 10 hours over the semester with a Alzheimer’s/ Dementia patient, I began to put a smile on my face. I did so because I knew what us as students going to these sites would brighten and lift these patients up. That’s something I would enjoy doing, I love making others happy and if just by me being there for 1 hour will do that then that will give me all the experience I need. Throughout

On January 5, 2009 my father pasted away. He and I did not have the typical father-son relationship; we did not have a relationship at all. I presumed that it would have a little if any affect on me. However, as the semester continued, it seemed to get worse. Besides my father’s passing, several weeks later my grandmother was diagnosed with dementia. It was difficult for me to deal with, but it was more difficult for my mother to handle.

“Ordinary people” everywhere are faced day after day with the ever so common tragedy of losing a loved one. As we all know death is inevitable. We live with this harsh reality in the back of our mind’s eye. Only when we are shoved in the depths of despair can we truly understand the multitude of emotions brought forth. Although people may try to be empathetic, no one can truly grasp the rawness felt inside of a shattered heart until death has knocked at their door. We live in an environment where death is invisible and denied, yet we have become desensitized to it. These inconsistencies appear in the extent to which families are personally affected by death—whether they

Everyone faces hard times when loosing a loved one; I personally had to deal with such a situation recently, with the passing of my mother from lung cancer only a few short years ago. What I encountered during the process was that support can make a world of difference. When individuals have social and family support during such hard times, they often can reach a healthy balance with tragedies much faster and with less time spent in agony.

Have you ever had someone that was close to you die? I have had pets that I was close to die, but not someone I saw on weekly bases, until my great grandfather died. Death is something everyone experiences some time in their lifetime and people deal with it in many different ways. In the August of 2016, I was forced to learn how I was going to learn to deal with it.

Ever noticed an elderly couple performing normal daily activities and think to yourself, what would they do without one another? Many of us have elderly relatives who are either married or have someone with whom they have a tight bond with, such as a best friend, and we believe they keep each other alive. We are all born to die, but how we cope with death is different. When someone dies, persons affected may feel depressed, sad and even angry. Looking at death from a different perspective, such as a loved one going to a better place, instead of a loss can cause relatives to celebrate. This is usually the case when the cause of death is natural. When death of a spouse is because of a traumatic event, love ones are left with