#Prison

So today I went to the psychiatric hospital and volunteered in their forensics unit. Basically, I went to the mental hospital prison. Willingly. 

And it was awesome!

So back up a little bit, ever since I can remember I've always wanted to help out the people in prison. There were multiple occasions where I asked my parents, youth leaders etc. if we could bring the criminals cookies and cheer the way we bring the old folks cookies and cheer. All I wanted to do was help. So, when I found out that recreational therapists can help the people in jail I got really really really excited. And this week when I found out I was going to be able to go into a jail unit I got really really excited. 

Then today I actually got to go in, and it was awesome. 

I walked up to the building into the waiting room and the intercom came on and said step forward, locked the door behind me, verified my identification and had me walk through another door that locked behind me. I was in! Life-long dream accomplished. I'm not sure if non-psychiatric jail units are less welcoming than the building I stepped into (which part of me is sure they are dismal and part of me is open to a homey feeling jail). Anyway it was pretty nice in there. I started out playing in a PE group in the gym, and then we did an art group, and then it was time for me to go. We played lightening, and I got to take care of the art room and supervise the patients while they expressed themselves through art. 

I had a great time. 

Part of me was surprised at how normal they all were, we played ball just like me and my non-convicted friends would play. We laughed and made jokes the same way my "normal" friends would make jokes. They were really good at art. They have feelings to express, and those feelings came out in the form of heroes and gods and flowers and mountains. It was beautiful. The walls of their living areas are lined with puzzles they've completed. Perhaps they have made bad choices, some even very very bad choices, but they also are human beings. They have a soul and emotions and mental illnesses that require help, care, and attention. That's what I saw today. I saw people, they need somebody, and I have a stronger desire now to help them than I did before.

~Birdy

#ImAmormon

So today on campus I saw a man wearing a shirt that said, "I can't, I'm mormon." (at a school mostly comprised of mormons)

That shirt is just so incredibly wrong. There is nothing, aside from a good conscience, keeping us mormons from doing anything. It'd be the same as wearing a shirt that says, "I can't jump off a cliff, my mom won't let me."

Being a mormon doesn't mean I can't do things, it means I choose not to do things I have been informed are bad for me. It's not that I can't drink alcohol or some mysterious power will shame me and burn me, I know alcohol is poison and so I choose not to drink it. It isn't that I can't have fun on sunday; it's that I know there is a God in heaven who is my father, which means that I have a spiritual side of me that needs attention in order to live healthy and happy so I choose to devote one day a week (~15% of my week) to my spiritual needs. I don't have sex before marriage not because I'm a prude, but because I know that that level of initimacy is meant to be between two people who will never leave each other, who will stay and support each other, and who have already promised their commitment to one another through a ceremony (kind've exactly like marriage) and so I choose to wait and use it properly. It isn't that, as a mormon, I can't do stupid things, I just choose not to do stupid things.

And it really frustrates me that people seem to really focus on what mormons don't do, what about all the things we excel at? Being a mormon means you are part of the most caring community, and the best support system ever invented. We pride ourselves on the large amounts of service we do, we have a special committe dedicated to it actually like seven, one for the teenage women, teenage men, children, and two for the adult women and adult men. People check up on me randomly, just to see how I'm doing and if there is anything they can do to make life better. We have a stereotype for caseroles, because whenever anything happens to anyone we bake them a caserole (childbirth, hospital trips, sniffles- we got you covered). No matter what happens in my life, somebody has my back and I've got anyone else's back. It really is a fantastic way of living.

Stop focusing on what I don't do, I have chosen not to do those things. Focus on the things I do do, and take advantage of it- I got your back and I would love to help you out.

~Birdy

#cougars!!!!

Today is the homecoming game, and my midterm. I was planning on waking up early because I really wanted to go to the pancake bakfast and watch the parade. But, I stayed up really late and so sleep was more important. Then, to my surprise as I was walking to the testing center, these cars with balloons came strolling by; it was the parade! So I watched for a bit and then went to take my test.

I was super glad that I got the chance to watch the parade, I have all these plans, goals, and good intentions that get trampled on by the rest of life. (Usually they get pushed out of the way by tings such as school and family and eating on a regular basis, you know higher priority items.) But this was one of those blessings where I got to do something I didn't think I would get the chance to do, and it was great.

I suppose the moral of the story is to not get too bent out of shape over all the things you can't get to, and to be greatful for the times, though they may be few, that you can do everything you wanted to.

~Birdy

#TR

Therapeutic recreation is my life; literally it is my passion, major, and career.

In case you don't know what therapeutic recreation is, it is another form/theory/branch of therapy that uses recreation as it's main tool. Sometimes play is just inherantly therapeutic, sometimes it is overcoming challenges that raises the individual to another level, sometimes it is relating the activity to the patient's life that helps them get through their struggles, and sometimes it is the skills learned in play that the individual needed in order to progress. For example, a child with any sort of disability may only need a hobby or a group of friends to play with to obtain a normal level of well-being. A juvenile might just need to learn how to play a game (like bowling) to give them something to do other than rob stores. Maybe the same juvenile needs to learn patience, perhaps through fishing, in order to function at a higher level. There is a recovery program called addicts to athletes that replaces addictions to drugs with addictions to running. These addicts come and run, and when they do they learn to do hard things, to overcome pain, and that there is reward in hard tasks and in health. These addicts learn skills, learn to build character, and relate their running challenges to their addiction challenges. Let me tell you it is a cool thing to watch. You can check out their program via their website: http://addicttoathlete.org/

Recently I've been volunteering with addicts to athletes, and this past week I've had a lot of really good, inspiring moments with therapeutic recreation.
The first was on tuesday during the athletes weekly meeting/workout they really just touched my heart on all levels. There were a couple athletes who got up and told about their experience with running for kids with disabilities. This is where I found out that these addicts that turn into athletes mostly run charity races, they give and they give and they love it. There were some men who told about pushing wheelchairs while they run their races and I was so touched by their stories of their experiences because they have gone above and beyond the mark, they don't just run for their own recovery anymore, or to stay in shape but they reach out and run for other people. These athletes have overcome their own challenges and are now taking on even harder things for children who can't walk.  That is huge progress and so giving of them; there arn't a lot of people I know without an addiction who would push a kid while they run. So I was really touched by their deeds and impressed at how far they have come.
The next one was a movie we watched in one of my recreation classes, "Radio." It's an inspiring movie about a boy with a mental disability who wanders around town quietly until the football coach lets him participate in the football team. Before you know it the boy goes from walking vegetable to fully-functioning adult who is only a little bit challenged mentally. I was inspired by how sports brought that boy out of his shell, and then I remembered other movies based on true stories like "The Blind Side," "Forest Gump," and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," where other boys improve/benefit dramatically as a result of recreation they take part in. This also really inspired me to the effectiveness of my field, and how recreation can really benefit people and improve the quality of their lives.

So, here I am now, more eager than ever to get out there and make a difference in others' lives'. I have more knowledge about how to help, and more proof than I thought I would get in college about the efficacy of my field. These experiences convinced me that my field is good, and I love my field so much more now than I did at the beginning of the week. I hope you also have a better appreciation in your heart for recreation therapy after reading these wonderful things it has done for other people.

~Birdy