Josh Berg Agent of Change Post

For my Agent of Change portion of my You and the World project on alienation of the elderly, I played music at a housing facility for the elderly. More specifically I went to Wesley Enhanced Living at Stapeley, which was previously known to me as just "Stapeley" sans "Wesley enhanced living". I am not sure how long it was like that, or even if it changed at all. I do think they changed the sign however. I wanted to do something like this because playing music is something I enjoy doing as well as is something I am not abysmal at. I would be a subpar agent of change if you do something that ends up worsening the lives of those you are trying to help. I did went in to play on the 21st of April with my father playing bass and a friend of ours playing guitar and even singing. 

I wasn't sure about what I wanted to do for a substantial amount of the brainstorming time we had to think about what we wanted to do for this portion of the project. My strategy to figure out what I wanted to do that could be beneficial to others, was to think about things I possessed some skill at. If I did something I was awful at, I can't imagine people would be able to get much help from what I did. In preparation we practiced songs that we might want to do. We kept in mind our audience and did song's that were catered towards them. This ended up paying off as many of the songs were recognized and interaction between musicians and audience was had, as well as reminiscence of times in the past. I called the facility and booking a date was easy. I imagine that finding free activities can be difficult. Overall, the idea stayed the same except for our having a guitarist was not true from the start.

This wasn't the first time I had played at a place like this, however it still felt good to do a deed where we could potentially be helping people. I really do hope that the people watching us at least enjoyed it, or it helped them not to be bored or something. It doesn't really matter how small. I think that I am still in the process of learning how best I can help the community, despite this experience, although, I am sure that I have also taken a step forward to realizing my full potential as a steward of the community. I think that I learned that everyone has the potential to aid their community if they make good use of their skill set.