Exercising a lifestyle of compassion entails not simply just selfishly caring about oneself, but also staying in tune with the people around you. As a transition week from my job at the Y to my summer job at Fairmont, this was a good week to exercise said principles.
Goodbyes: I invested much compassion in the students I met this year at Katella High School. And though it’s quite tragic that the year has come to an end, I wished many of them a good summer (and if I don’t happen to return next year, a good life). Signing yearbooks and ensuring all students feel slightly “at home” at the Y has been a mixed success for me this year.
Reunions: At the same time, I tried to illustrate compassion in another way by visiting my friends in San Diego midway throughout the week. This included lunch with my boss, a Phil’s trips, and several conversations to try to gauge the emotional mood of several of my peers. I think a key component in exercising compassion is listening to people, especially when they communicate their problems to you. To show empathy and understanding to them, and not getting easily agitated by others is a key pillar of being a compassionate person.
Hellos: I met a massive array of new people in my two-day training at Fairmont. When some opportunities arose, I tried my best to communicate with my co-workers to establish a proper working relationship. Using a compassionate demeanor will be a key element in how we will become a stronger and closer niche team in the long run. The actual training itself placed an emphasis on using compassion as a mechanism by which to be a “fairy godmother” so to speak to all the summer campers, which I plan to do in the upcoming 8 weeks.
Exercising Compassion: There remained other ways to exercise compassion, namely to keep touching base with people to see how “their day is”. I try to ask people how they are doing or how their day is going the first time I see them. At the same time, I like to make people feel special whenever possible (such as Father’s Day, where I would wish my dad a happy birthday and spend dinnertime with the family to do so). While words are important, compassion can be exercised through one’s actions, such as tutoring someone at the YMCA for hours upon hours, talking to a shy student or coworker that feels out of place, or simply reuniting with former close friends one has lost contact with.
The End Result: A good effort, but I could have done more with it. I give myself an B
Next Week: Courage
