The University of La Verne

This is my reflection for Reciprocity at Home. I performed reciprocity at two homes. First, while my sister was at home visiting from UCSB, I cleaned out her car. I thought this was an important act, as cleanliness can affect our mental health. Being around filth constantly is not going to help, and as a freshman in college, my little sister is really feeling it right now. Since she has to drives hours to get back to school from Rancho Cucamonga, I thought cleaning her car would be good, as she is spending a lot of time in it. Second, I went over to my girlfriend's house to do her dishes. I think we need to understand that "home" is not just where we live, it is where the people we love are. I thought this act would be important, as cleaning the dishes can be gross, and my girlfriend is also in the midst of her finals as well, so I thought it would be good to help.

This is my reflection for my Rock and Paint activity. So, I made three rocks to give, and one rock to keep for myself. I think giving one rock to myself can still be considered an act of service, as sometimes we have to serve ourselves to serve others, and I really needed to confidence boost the rock brought. I drew phrases such as U R A Star, U Can Do it, and Kill it. I give one rock to one of my professors, I gave another to a student at Laverne in my bio class who felt rough about our final, and I gave the last rock to a student in my state and local class who felt nervous about the final. The reaction from the two students I gave rocks to were thankful. They seemed like they really cared about the rock. I saw my peer in bio actually keep the rock next to her while she took the final. The professor just laughed a little bit, but said they appreciated it. What passing these rocks on showed me is that ultimately, any small act of kindness can completely change the trajectory of someone's day, and I think that it powerful.

I did the Connecting Generations activity. In this activity, I had to create 5 art activities students could do to send to assisted living homes. I decided to make my activities centered around the holidays, as a lot of elderly people spend holidays alone. I made a Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and Valentines Day activities. What this taught me was that the elderly are part of our communities too. On top of this, we need to consider how alone people are during the holidays.