The day was finally here! FLASHMOB!! :)
We all met at Murphy library around 4:00 and started going over in shifts with pairs or small groups. We had to make sure it was not obvious of course. Our class/extra friends were scattered around the rec working out. Around 4:30, the song started to play and our first group began the dance on the middle basketball court.
Soon, we all started joining in at different times. We all wore white shirts. Everything went really well! We all remembered the dance and were together on the moves. Some people around us at the rec continued to play basketball, but there was also a decent sized crowd that was watching us. When the music stopped, everyone cheered and we walked away as if nothing just happened. Overall, I would say the flashmob was definitely a success!
Although many friends of mine could not believe a flashmob was our class assignment/project, it did have many implications that connect to TR. ( and they were just jealous that my major is way more fun than theirs :) ) One big part of the flashmob was teamwork and planning. As a therapeutic recreation specialist, you will most likely be working with other healthcare professionals or a team of others. I think that working with the class on the flashmob was a good practice of teamwork. There were a lot of us and we had to work together to come up with ideas and communicate effectively as a big group. Planning was also another huge component of the flashmob. We had to plan every detail of the flashmob : what song, how to play the song, what time, where, how many people, location of people in the dance, dance moves, timing, apparel, etc. Planning is a huge part of recreational therapy because you will always be planning activities ahead and have to think of even the smallest details of the activities in order to facilitate them best for the population you are working with.
Lastly, one other big thing I learned from the flashmob that I can directly apply to my future as a recreational therapist is adapting activities. When planning a dance for the flashmob, we made sure that the dance moves were of a basic skill level and that everyone of all abilities in our class was able to participate. This is what TR is all about, adapting activities for individuals of all different ability levels. I think we picked a really good song/dance because it was perfect that it already had a dance for the song ( at least for our circumstances with timing) and also had really basic moves that everyone was able to do.
After the flashmob, I realized that I had definitely stepped outside of my comfort zone. I was a little "iffy" about the whole flashmob at first because I am not much of a dancer, especially in public. What put me at ease was doing the flashmob with my classmates. We are a fun group and I knew that none of us were professional dancers or anything. I had so much fun planning and participating in the flashmob. I was really excited leading up to the flashmob and of course was super excited when we were actually out there performing it. I learned that sometimes you have to step outside of your comfort zone to experience some of the best things in life. I wouldn't say that the flashmob was one of the best things in my life, but I will say that it was such a neat experience and was on my bucket list.
I would definitely recommend the flashmob to be a part of this class in the future. I think that as a TR major it is a great assignment because many parts of it apply to TR practice and I also think that every TR major should step outside of their comfort zone ( for many this probably would do it, but not for all) because many of the people they will be working with may experience similar feelings in activities that they are encouraged to participate in.
I felt as if I "strived for excellence" in regards to the flashmob assignment because I tried to always contribute throughout the planning process and also gave 100% in the flashmob performance.
What an awesome experience. :)
"The best feeling is knowing that you hold the power to make every day a good day."
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