The last time we went to the hospital, my friend and I decided that we’re going to try something different; other than going and talking to patients in the wards, we wanted to meet new people and engage in new activities, things that we haven’t done before. So the two of us went to one of the room in the back, where a patient was making bracelets and keychains. We went up to him and started talking, about his life, what he has been doing in the past few years and how he got this job at the hospital while he was also trying to teach us how to make the keychains. We had an amazing conversation, he explained a lot of interesting things and

We didn’t even realised that our service ended, we spend the whole time talking to this man. When we had to leave, something really unexpected happened and I feel like that was something that I’ll always remember.

He stood up, held our hands and said:

“Girls. Thank you. Thank you for spending this past hour with me. That was the first time when I actually enjoyed my time here and when I talked to people for such a long time. People here don’t make the effort to talk to me. Thank you. It was really nice meeting you. I cannot wait to see you two again next week!”

This afternoon was a new experience for me and it also had a really big impact on me. We tried something we haven’t done before, which wasn’t such a “big” change, we just wanted to meet new people and instead of going and talking to the same people, we wanted to engage in a new activity while talking to people we haven’t  talked to before. During that week, I though about that man every day. I felt like my service helped me to not only meet an amazing and well-rounded person who I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet otherwise, but also showed me how big of an impact you can make just by listening to someone’s story who really needed someone to talk to.