Pretend to Die

Pretend to Die Paper details: One of the fun assignments in" rel="nofollow">in this course is to die. I mean, of course, to pretend to die. You will each be assigned a disease that people commonly die of within" rel="nofollow">in a span of a few months. You will pretend that you are dyin" rel="nofollow">ing of that disease durin" rel="nofollow">ing this semester and you will keep a journal about what it's like to die. Hopefully, this will help you get the feel of what it's like to die - to walk in" rel="nofollow">in the shoes of a person with a termin" rel="nofollow">inal illness and develop genuin" rel="nofollow">ine empathy (not just sympathy) for those who are dyin" rel="nofollow">ing. What we're aimin" rel="nofollow">ing for here is an emotional, not just an in" rel="nofollow">intellectual, understandin" rel="nofollow">ing of what dyin" rel="nofollow">ing people experience. This exercise is worthwhile only to the extent that you "get in" rel="nofollow">into it". If you don't put yourself in" rel="nofollow">into it, pretend that it's real, and do some real work tryin" rel="nofollow">ing to get in" rel="nofollow">inside the head of a person with that disease, you won't get much out of it, but if you try, you will be rewarded with a deep understandin" rel="nofollow">ing of what dyin" rel="nofollow">ing people need. Your journal should contin" rel="nofollow">inue your thoughts and feelin" rel="nofollow">ings about what it's like to: hear your diagnosis try to understand what this disease means come to grips with your likely future endure the treatments and the side-effects of treatments experience the disease process feel what it's like to relate your your family and friends as a dyin" rel="nofollow">ing person and, ultimately, to come to the end of the road and surrender yourself to dyin" rel="nofollow">ing You should write in" rel="nofollow">in your journal regularly - daily would be good, weekly would be an absolute min" rel="nofollow">inimum and it had better be rich. Keep your journal in" rel="nofollow">in a (Word, or somethin" rel="nofollow">ing similar) document file that you can upload to Canvas at the end of the semester for me to read and grade. Journals are kept strictly confidential by me so you don't need to worry about sharin" rel="nofollow">ing personal in" rel="nofollow">information. Your journal will be graded on my perception of how deeply you got in" rel="nofollow">into it, how hard you tried, and what evidence the journal gives that you learned somethin" rel="nofollow">ing from the assignment.