Do it for life!

So for those of you who don't know I did my internship this semester with the Public Health District in Idaho Falls. The motto they had was "do it for life!" I had an amazing opportunity to go out to Ririe and Idaho Falls twice times a week each and exercise with the elderly in a program that was called Fit and Fall Proof.

Each on of the participants have touched my life in one way or another and have been a great strength to me this semester. Every day I would go out to either Idaho Falls or Ririe and always be greeted with open arms and a warm smile. They are such great examples to me in how my life should be. It's funny how they didn't really know all that was going on in my life, yet they treated me with such compassion because that is their nature. Many times that was a lifesaver for me, I knew no matter how bad of a day I was having once I got to my internship they would make me smile and many times bring me to tears from laughing so hard. On the last day at the Idaho Falls Senior Center Irma, 101 years old, came up to me and said my motto is 'love one another.' I love that and want to adopt that as my new motto!

My Partner is Jen Jelte and we had such a blasted together. She has become a really close friend of mine and we had some really good chats during the commute to the senior centers. We were one of the best partnerships ever and worked really well together. The older people would joke around with us a lot and especially at the Idaho Falls Senior Center, I'll just say those who wanted to cheat would go on Jen's side of the circle and those who wanted a good workout came over to my side. I was also given the nickname of Slave Driver :)

The Ririe Senior Center had on average 4 people show up. They were a little harder to get to know and have fun with, but by the end we were all laughing and having a good time while working out. We started out having 8 people but one couple left on a mission and the other couple starting to wind down a little and could not do the exercises anymore, but we still managed to see them every time we went out there. 

They are some of my favorite. Marylin and Betty have left a huge imprint in my heart! They are such fun people and always ready to exercise. Betty reminds me of my Grandma Hendrickson so I think thats why I connected to her so quickly and Marylin would always get on my case about working them too hard. My heart is definitely still in Ririe! 

Idaho Falls was a much bigger group, on average we had about 30 people show up. We had a lot of fun with them and they were always open to our crazy workouts and Jen's jokes. They loved doing the Hokey Pokey with us and showing off their dance moves, John especially was one of my favorites to dance with. Whenever I wore my glasses to class John would come up to me and say that we were twins that day...he had huge glasses from probably the 60's, I love that man! We loved going to the Idaho Falls site! I wish I had a picture to show of them but Jen hasn't gotten that one to me yet. They are great people!.

Friday we had our last internship meeting and it was so great to get together with our supervisor, Timalee, and all the other interns to talk about our experience this semester. Timalee was such a great supervisor and I loved being able to work closely with her once a week in the Public Health District, unlike any of the other interns. She is an amazing person and I love her to death! I have also become such great friends with all the other interns. It was a great semester!