Let's start with how I got my internship and everything. I had the greatest teachers ever! No joke. I was super fortunate! Anyways, in the winter one of my teachers kept telling our classes about this cool internship with the Eastern Idaho Public Health District. It was unpaid but it offered interns a great experience working in the public health field. It was also close to Rexburg, which was what I needed because Jordan was going to be taking classes on campus and if I couldn't find an internship here I was going to have to wait until January 2013 to even start my internship (that's when Jordan is off school and we have a little more freedom to move for internship opportunities, if we need to) which would mean I would not be completely done with my Bachelor's degree until April 2013 and I really didn't want to wait that long. So I got the contact info for Timalee, who is in charge of the program that the interns runs. I contacted her and within a week or two everything was set. Woo!
I was so nervous about this internship. I was going to have to teach exercise classes every day and I do not like being in front of a group of people. I know some of you are thinking "but what about all those years in Children's Chorus with the red skirts and sequins, singing in front of the entire Poway Performing Arts Center?" Yeah for those of you who have never been on that stage, the lights are so bright you can't even see anything past the edge of the stage, and I was super tall for my age (what happened to that?!) so I was always in the back. Then I played the tuba in high school, which meant I was always in the back! Front and center doesn't work for me. So the night before I had training I had a complete meltdown (if you don't believe me ask Jordan, there were lots of tears!). I was scared that I wouldn't know enough, that they would think I wasn't smart enough to teach, and I was nervous about meeting the other interns. I was worried the other interns would be so much better than me and that I would be the worst intern ever. Yes, I really did think all this, at the same time, and was freaking out! It's a great thing I married a man that doesn't ever worry about anything (well at least not irrational crazy things like me!) and just tells me everything will work out fine. I have definitely learned to listen to him when he says that...sometimes it just takes me a little while to listen still! Anyways, the training went pretty well, I got to meet the other interns and they were all so nice, and some felt the same as me! I felt a little better but I was still nervous. We had three sites that we taught at so I'll just go through each one to tell you about it.
Milo: Our Milo site was fun. It took us a little while to find it because it's sort of in the middle of nowhere. Our class was pretty fun, they were kind of chatty but it was fun. They always had stories to tell us and wanted to know what was going on in our lives. They even asked if we have any special talents. I told them that I can pick things up with my toes and they asked me to demonstrate it for them! Haha Overall it was a fun site to teach at and I will miss it. Here is a picture of my class:
Madison: We taught a class at the Madison Senior Center. This class was probably the most interesting class. There was some kind of tension between some of the participants, it had a lot of background history that we never found out about. We could just feel some kind of tension in the room. It was strange. But by then end everyone was friends (well at least there was no more tension) and they all seemed a lot happier. The attitude felt completely different and everyone was so sweet! When we started one lady, Doris, seemed really grouchy I guess. We would ask her "how are you?" and she would tell us that she thinks that's a rhetorical question. Yep. And we asked her how her Memorial Day was and she said "oh, I don't observe Memorial Day." She would come and work out and go home at first, but by the end of class she was happy and she even brought cookies for everyone in the class on the last day. She was so sweet! I loved that we got to see the attitudes of the ladies in our class change. They were happy to be there and they seemed a lot happier.I don't have a picture of this class :( But it was great...by the end.
Ammon: The Ammon class was our biggest class and we actually visited it during our training day. There are usually 25-30 people there and it is an hour long (the other two are only 45 minutes). This class made me the most nervous! We taught in the cultural hall of the church and our circle (which was really a looooong oval). If you know me pretty well you know that I cannot speak very loud, ok I probably can but I always struggle to talk loud enough. Like my whole like has been, speak up, speak louder. After I saw this class at our training I was so nervous! I thought I would have a hard time and have to repeat myself ten times (which is sooo frustrating!). I was seriously so blessed because our supervisor had a microphone headset for us! I felt like a legit trainer! Some mornings I watched the Today show while I was eating breakfast and one morning Kayne did a concert and he had a microphone just like the ones we used! After that I always felt a little like Kayne West when I had my microphone on. The sound system worked out great! And we could still listen to music while we were working out! This class was special to me because I got the opportunity to work with a woman named Rita. Rita has down syndrome and is 62 years old! Super rare! She was so sweet and so fun to work with. The other interns and I would switch off helping her work out so her sister could get a work out in too. Rita always told us we were beautiful, and if someone wasn't smiling she would tel them "Hey you need to smile". She always had bright color socks on or socks with little bows or some kind of decoration. They were never plain and I don't remember ever seeing the same pair more than once! Rita would always ask if I liked her socks or her shoes. I was a great experience and one that I will definitely never forget! Here is a picture of our huge class!
Overall I love my internship. It was really a great experience and if I could stay there and get paid for working there I would do it in a heartbeat!
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