I enjoyed visiting Casa de Manana because it reminded me of many of my family members or other family friends who I have not seen in a while. All the seniors I listened to spoke of a love of travelling and had gone to places like Antarctica, Soviet Union, and China pre-Tiananmen Square. Clearly, it took resources to be able to travel so much, but it also showed the economic cost of having children. The couple I spoke to did not have children, thus, they were able to afford a more glamorous lifestyle and travel. The choice whether or not to have children (adopted, foster, biological, etc) is a major financial choice as well as a family one, and the active choice not to have children has tangible effects on one’s quality of living and amount of freedom. It was surprising that one of the women had nine children and still have travelled so much, but she must have had a very large amount of resources. For the rest of us, it almost seems like a choice to have children, or to have more financial freedom and wiggle room. Children can be a source of joy and pride, but it is expensive to have a child, with the cost of basic things like diapers, cribs, and another mouth to feed, but also important things such as childcare, education, and extracurricular activities. Sustained activities like sports and choir not only take a lot of the child’s and parents time and can have large fees and driving commitments, but can prevent a child from holding an afterschool job.
“When I Was (Am) 20” was an interesting assignment because it showed how despite being portrayed as out of touch with reality, stodgy, and fixed in their ways, some seniors recognize the world is very different than when they were twenty and the one I spoke to encouraged me to finish out my education. The lady I spoke with (Donna, I believe), was a 74 year old woman, who recently retired from being a typist and administrative assistant and now volunteered at her church which she deeply loved. She is passionate about her faith and sharing it with us, with frequent reminders that “we are all children of God” and “we came from a place of love”. She was rather sweet with her desire to share the gospel with others, if not a little overbearing at times, but she did have the where-with-all to acknowledge that. At twenty, she said her brother moved her out to California and made her go to school, where she became an administrative assistant, and also a mother and wife. She encouraged us, that times were different now and it was good that we were in college, because we now can’t depend on being homemakers and having a husband that can pay all the bills -- “it’s expensive to live here now anyways”. She was, like many women (especially of her generation), very passionate about keeping as much of her family in contact, and she wore a bracelet with charms attached with every cousin’s birth date, dating back to 1883.
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ELIZABETH PEEKWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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