When I was very young I remember General Motors having a family day where I went to see where my dad worked. I knew as a child that it was the place my dad went to everyday. He would leave the house at 6:00 am and come home after I got home from school. There was no clue of what he did running through my head. He fixed electronics, which he would sometimes bring my toys that needed repaired to work. However while we were there, his compadres would be teasing him and making comments that would shape the way I thought how my dad worked. From that point on I had the image of my dad sitting in a chair reading the newspaper all day, randomly fixing things once in a while. It could be furthest of the truth but that was the image that I had. Bringing my daughter to work today makes me wonder what kind of image she would have of me.
We started our day as I always do, making music with the children at Met hospital. We made room to room visits and brought some joy to sick children. After lunch I took her to the long term care home I work at and we did a session for the residents. My daughter joined in on Ukulele all day and tried her best to follow along.
There was no script for the day, I had some autumn themes in the back of my head. With the nature of impromptu sessions, it was more thinking off your feet and catering to the children or seniors. On the surface it may look like just winging it all day long, but what isn’t seen is the years of training and experience to be able to get to the level of making it effortless.
Today’s highlights would be encouraging a 13 year old to pursue her enjoyment of music regardless of the inability of her grade school music teacher to train them. It’s sad to hear that some teacher’s just stop caring, or connecting with children. My daughter demonstrated great compassion by sharing some of the songs she has learned on Ukulele. The patient told us that she struggles with learning music on her own because of memory problems, which is something my daughter has worked on with her own individual education plan. I think it was positive encouragement for both of them.
At the end of the day I asked my daughter, if she had a choice what age group would she like to work with, children or seniors? She answered, the children. It’s no surprise, she always likes being around children.
Hopefully she will have an image of me, making a difference, no matter how small that may be sometimes.