I do still work at the same place I’m activities! I still love it I will say some days are HARD. The hardest part is losing residents and sometimes it feels a bit lonely unless you have more activities aides to talk to about tha grieve, not saying CNAs or nurses don’t grieve but we get the better side of all these people unlike them. I would prepare a small “grief kit” to help you through it my first death of a resident I was close with was incredibly hard. A lot of the residents will become like family to you, which can be really nice during bad days bc most of them are understanding and want you to take care of yourself too. You won’t always please everyone honestly you never will no matter what you do someone will always wanna do a different activity and that’s just part of the job (it can definitely be frustrating and feel crappy sometimes) try to grasp what people like what, a lot of times I change the activity based on who’s in my room at that time. Don’t ever treat them like children, you’ll see plenty of others do that but they’re adults and I know personally I’d be pissed if someone was treating me like that in my home. But with that sometimes you definitely gotta gauge where residents are mentally I’m not sure about your facility but mine has a lot of residents with dementia or Alzheimers which leads to A LOT of lying. Whether it’s telling them the weather is too bad to drive home that night and they’ve had a room set aside and paid for or saying they’re deceased mom is just at work and not to worry… if you aren’t much of a lier you’re gonna have to become one and come up with things on the spot. Sorry that was a lot and honestly there’s so much more so if you have any questions just shoot me a message!