In March of 2016, I was involved in a freak accident while volunteering for NHS, leaving a portion of my spine broken. I spent two weeks in the hospital, one of which was spent at Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital, where the goal is to get you out of the hospital room and walking again. To my surprise, during my stay there I was the youngest person in the whole hospital, with all of the others being well over forty all with differing reasons for being admitted. As a patient myself, I knew how gruesome the recovery process was both mentally and physically. Even with so many people visiting and showing their support, it was still an incredibly hard journey. So, seeing that the majority of patients there never had a single visitor during their entire stay was really something that stuck with me even after being
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However, I started going in the late spring, painting the therapy gym windows with Easter festivities, from bunnies to flowers, these windows were covered in cheerful décor for patients to look at during their recovery. It wasn’t until I heard from my former therapist about how much the artwork was loved and enjoyed that I decided to keep coming back to volunteer. Weeks passed and a new season was upon us, summer had begun and the Olympics were about to start, so there I was back at the hospital painting the windows with various Olympic events and the traditional rings and torch. Patients would wheel by, giving compliments and thanking me for “brightening the place up”, but I didn’t even know how to respond because I enjoyed doing it so much that it didn’t even seem like work to me. I was shocked to see how much of a difference was made in their attitudes and outlooks of recovery simply by putting some paint on glass. After that, I was determined to go back and do something even bigger, and oh, I sure
However, I started going in the late spring, painting the therapy gym windows with Easter festivities, from bunnies to flowers, these windows were covered in cheerful décor for patients to look at during their recovery. It wasn’t until I heard from my former therapist about how much the artwork was loved and enjoyed that I decided to keep coming back to volunteer. Weeks passed and a new season was upon us, summer had begun and the Olympics were about to start, so there I was back at the hospital painting the windows with various Olympic events and the traditional rings and torch. Patients would wheel by, giving compliments and thanking me for “brightening the place up”, but I didn’t even know how to respond because I enjoyed doing it so much that it didn’t even seem like work to me. I was shocked to see how much of a difference was made in their attitudes and outlooks of recovery simply by putting some paint on glass. After that, I was determined to go back and do something even bigger, and oh, I sure