Simulations

I was surprised that the wheelchair simulation was not as hard as I thought it would be and the visual simulation was harder than I thought it would me.  It is opposite than what I was expecting.  I found that half-way through the visual simulation, I was impatient and frustrated.  It was hard to drive and even to talk with my daughter because I had to turn my whole body in order to see her.

During the wheelchair simulation, I was worried that my daughter and husband would dump me out when we were going across some grass.  It was difficult to use the bathroom but not as difficult as I thought it would be to move through the building.  My family was sweet to help me with these assignments, but didn't miss the opportunity to take pictures and have some fun with me.  It ended up being a fun experiment to do.  

For the stuttering simulation, I agreed with some of my classmates that this would be difficult to fake.  I have a large family and I was worried that if I tried to do the stuttering with people in the community, it might end up being one of my children's friends, or someone my husband works with or has treated medically.  They would know that I am faking it and I felt it put me at risk of looking like I was making fun of people who have a stuttering problem.  In order to complete this activity, I just did the exercises with my husband and children.  I have an uncle who has had a serious stuttering problem and while I don't understand how he feels, I don't want to risk making him feel like I am being disrespectful.
 I just cannot get over the idea that these activities are helpful for us to understand how someone may feel, but they just don't seem honest.  Before I was married, I had the strong feeling that I needed to make sure I was acting with integrity always because I didn't want anyone to get the wrong impression of me.  During the wheelchair activity, I know that some of the professors feel it is important to let people know that you are involved in a simulation activity so wrong impressions are not made.  I tend to agree with them.