Ben Baughman

Partner Reflection

12/9/21

When I first started going to visit Vern, I was a bit nervous since I was going to be

meeting an older person that I had almost no knowledge about. I also have not had many

interactions with an elderly person much outside of my immediate family so I was a bit unsure

what to expect from my weekly visits. As I continued to go to our meetings, I started to look

forward to seeing Vern because I was gaining experience in how to talk with someone who was

not the same, or near, age as me. During our meetings I began to feel more comfortable and was

able to tell that I was building a rapport with Vern since I found out we have several things in

common.

When Vern and I had our first few visits I would also meet with his wife Rose, I got to

learn a lot about their lives and who they were as people. Not long after our visits started, I began

just visiting with Vern. This allowed me to build a stronger rapport with him and I soon found

myself wanting to stay longer than our 1-hour meetings to continue talking. In our talks we

would talk about professional and college sports since we both are fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes. I

soon realized that our weekly meetings excited Vern since he got to talk to someone outside of

the nursing home staff/ residents. This was evident because when he would see me walking into

the building he would smile and start walking over to me quickly. As the last meeting came

closer, I started to feel sad because I would not have much time to see him again and I was not

supposed to visit him after our final visit. After the final visit, I knew I was going to miss visiting

with Vern but as glad I got the opportunity to meet, speak, and learn from him.
 This assignment was one that I was not too sure on how much I would enjoy it, but by the

end of it I was glad it happened. Due to my lack of experience of speaking with people from the

elderly population, I was nervous for how it was going to go but this assignment ended up being

one of my favorites. Not only did these visits put me outside of my comfort zone at first, but also

taught me how to speak with those that I did not know. Learning through experience is a

fantastic way to learn quickly and effectively since you are learning by your actions. I have

learned several lessons all throughout this assignment and am extremely glad I got the

opportunity to meet, visit, and learn from Vern.