1.I love my dad, but a handy man he is not. He will tell you himself, so I’m not sharing any family secrets. My Paw Paw however, is a retired master carpenter and general contractor. I figured that, since I’m a man now, it was time to learn some basic skills. Living in hurricane-prone New Orleans, storm prep is necessary, and my mom complained that the shed in the backyard was falling apart. It needed a new roof, new wooden panels, and a fresh coat of paint and she feared it might not survive the next storm. To give her peace of mind, I offered to work with Paw Paw to get her project done and restore the shed to its former glory. In the process, I would refine some important character traits: patience, attentive listening, creativity, and effective communication. While Paw Paw has all the knowledge to help me learn general construction skills, past health issues make verbal instructions from him complicated. His hands don’t work the way they once did, and this frustrates him at times. In addition to his unclear directions, all his tools have lots of wear and tear, so operating them required some level of finesse. Fortunately for both of us, I’m a patient person and I’ve been told I’m a very attentive listener. Therefore, we decided to start with the roof repairs. Paw Paw had me use the circular saw to cut off the rotten boards and attach new lumber to the front. I placed each roofing tile in an overlapping pattern as instructed and nailed them in by hand. A nail gun would have made this part so much easier, but we were going old school which made me understand his calloused hands the hard way. We were unable to find his roofing knee pads in his disorganized shed, so I created my own with rags and a bandana. The roof became so hot in the 110-degree heat that a part of my tennis shoe melted off. Throughout the process, we became regulars at the local hardware store. As we walked through the aisles, Paw Paw imparted his knowledge about how and why he chose each item, helping me learn the rationale for choosing a 1 ¾ inch wood screw versus a shorter one. Planning the work was very educational as he talked through roof measurements and demonstrated how to use a chalk line to place tiles neatly. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. There were many times communication broke down. One afternoon, Paw Paw was trying to describe a method of roofing and through a combination of misunderstandings and the blazing temperatures, my grandfather yelled from the ground he was leaving so my work had to stop for the day. Construction resumed the next day after a heart-to-heart phone call where we each acknowledged our faults and figured out our way forward. Paw Paw relaxed under the umbrella with a cold glass of iced tea as I added blue paint to the outside of the shed. I listened as he shared stories from his past, and we talked about my future. As the project and summer came to a close, I was grateful to have had this time with my grandfather. It was a win-win for everyone. Paw Paw felt a sense of accomplishment passing on his knowledge to the next generation and my mom’s shed will hopefully survive many more storm seasons. More meaningful than the physical construction skills I acquired are the mental life lessons I learned about the power of patience, attentive listening, creativity, and effective communication. 2.For three summers, I volunteered as a junior volunteer at Ochsner Health, Jefferson Highway Campus. I worked in several areas, including the multi-organ transplant, neuroscience, and gastrointestinal stepdown units, and in nursing administration. While junior volunteers have limited interaction with patients directly, I was allowed to transport patients. On these short trips, I learned more about them as people and formed quick connections which will help me in my future career as a nurse. I remember one older gentleman who needed assistance getting into his vehicle and I was able to help while maintaining his dignity. His wife nervously talked to me as I pushed the wheelchair, and I provided light conversation allowing her anxiety to decrease. This experience made me realize how frightening being in the hospital can be and leaving the hospital can be scary knowing that now they will be returning home to continue to deal with the current illness with much less support. There were other patients I transported to their cars who had no family or friends there to support them. I realized how different this was from my own life where hospitalized family members were never alone. This was a valuable insight as a registered nurse, I will be caring for all different types of people with a variety of different backgrounds and levels of socioeconomic resources. I was given the tasks to help prepare for an upcoming regulatory visit by the Joint Commission. The job was tedious, but I know I was indirectly helping patients by organizing medical supply rooms, checking for and discarding expired supplies. This actually took many hours, and my volunteering allowed the nursing staff to take care of patients, instead of working in the supply rooms and not being in direct patient care. One of the units was a former COVID unit. It was eye-opening to hear from the nurses on this unit how they lived through the pandemic, risking their own health and the health of their families. I know that I may be asked to do the same selfless acts in the future. A more creative project I was assigned to was using my phone to spearhead filming of short clips of nurses about their experiences nursing on the gastrointestinal unit. After editing, these clips were attached by the recruitment team to job postings to help fill vacancies on a specialty unit that required special nursing skills. My time in nursing administration working with the assistant vice president of nursing helped me understand the business aspect of healthcare. I used computer skills to create spreadsheets to organize data being used by the nurse leader to determine patient volumes, patient throughput and how much nursing labor was needed to adequately staff each unit. She shared how travel nursing during COVID caused many nurses to retire and others to keep travel jobs which caused nursing salaries to be very expensive. I hope to be part of the solution in a few years, when I obtain my nursing license and add to the healthcare workforce.