I think one of the best things I have ever received from the Life Course Scholar Program was the sense of community; the space to share, to be heard, and to hear from others. Today we had the opportunity to present on the first half of this quarter’s reading work: Happiness is a Choice You Make by John Leland, a truly thought provoking piece on what it means to value and cherish life throughout all ages and stages. Although I had expected great conversation given the nature of the class and our close ties to one another, this week was especially raw and rewarding. I think one of the biggest things I personally got from reading Leland’s piece was the accepting the paradox that the things in life that make life most worth living (love, friendship, connection, etc.) are often the things that make saying goodbye to life so difficult. It’s not an easy subject - many of us are approaching the age and mindset in which a big part of our future will be to take care of our parents (just as they have taken care of us throughout our childhood and adolescence). It is, and will continue to be, a continuous grapple with the topic of love and loss. For myself, I find it challenging my usually ambivalent views about my future career and life work balance. Another paradox - the best way to serve and support my loved ones seems to be to keep going to school to work, but to go to more school and to work is to forgo possible time spent with my loved ones. I could say it’s a problem of the system and leave it at that, but it’s disheartening to remain unsolvable and unanswered. It’s definitely an important conversation that will continue throughout our course (and lives, for that matter).
On this truly gorgeous day at the ever scenic cliffs of downtown La Jolla, we trooped back to the ever elegant Casa de Manana for a LEG with some of the fantastic folk who resided there. Our small group had the privilege to speak with Ed, a former Navy reconnaissance pilot with an extensive list of previous careers and an equally rich library of stories to accompany his resume. Ed recalled that his life at twenty was turbulent, but exciting - his love of photography led him to be one of the photographers operating on the fateful night of the Attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. His years in the Naval Academy trained him to operate patrol aircraft for the Navy and allowed him to land these large, unwieldy propellor-driven contraptions on moving naval aircraft carriers - a feat that I find so utterly impressive. Ed was especially interested in our group’s fields of study and future career paths. He laughed along with us when all but two students replied with the major of Public Health but later agreed that health promotion and public initiatives were important, citing his own experiences illness and recovery. I think what I enjoyed most about talking to Ed was that I could easily see myself being friends with him - a lot of our interests align and his sense of humor is lighthearted and easygoing. It reminded me of a chapter in our class reading that talked about how the segregation of age groups makes it extremely unlikely to have friends outside of your own age group and what a waste of potential comradery and memories that presents. There are a multitude of opportunities and resources that I can explore to perhaps buck this trend in my own life - it is a matter of my own resolve and determination to make it a reality.
This week, we met with some great individuals who frequent the Bayside Community Center, this time in one of the activity rooms at the Thrive Public School across the street. Fresh from their regularly scheduled Zumba class, these seniors graciously offered their time, tales, and smiles as they shared stories of their lives at twenty years. I had the pleasure of speaking to two women, both of whom grew up in the Philippines and later immigrated to the United States. It was interesting to see the clear juxtaposition in their life experiences (one a nurse and the other a data administrator) combined with their underlying similarities (both expressed their adamant support for education, the promotion of health, and the love for Filipino adobo). Speaking of food, Grace and I got the chance to survey these two women for our Healthy Aging Project. Both of them graciously spent their time relationship with food and one of them even extended an offer to show us her favorite recipes in-person, at her house! Their generosity and enthusiasm actually gave me very high hopes for the outcome of our project. Although today’s visit was cut short by the lack of space and logistical challenges, I thought it was a very valuable and rewarding experience. I wish that I could have gotten the chance to speak to all of the individuals there; from discussion with my LCS peers after we left for the day I gathered that everyone had an engaging and meaningful conversation, a trend that I hope continues throughout this quarter.
This past week, our group regrouped at the classic SSB 102 after a weeklong Spring Break hiatus. Like any class in syllabus week, a lot of activity was logistical and reclaiming our priorities after being away. I think one of the things I am most excited for this coming quarter is partaking in and seeing everyone’s implementation of their Healthy Aging Projects. There were a multitude of such thoughtful and interesting projects - I’m really excited to see how they all turn out. In addition to this, we have the opportunity to present our Healthy Aging Projects at an end-of-the-quarter Healthy Aging Symposium, which is exciting not only in presenting but also seeing other projects doing in and around San Diego to improve age equity and the life course experience. I am also looking forward to are our continuing visits to local organizations and community centers to meet with an incredibly diverse population of elders in the San Diego county. Our upcoming meeting will be going back to Bayside and having a “My Life at 20” discourse, with everyone bringing a unique personal object/photo to share. I personally love activities such as these and cannot express how excited I am for this upcoming meeting and the rest of the quarter as a whole.
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Andrew NguyenWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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