January 31st is a date to remember, this past Wednesday the life scholar’s program had the pleasure to visit Casa de Manana, a retirement home for the elders right next to the beach. This retirement home consist of about 200 plus rooms of which ALL are currently occupied. Casa de Manana is such a beautiful and astonishing place! Once entering the door I was speechless because it was just so beautiful, I never imagined a retirement home to be that luxurious. The library was well furnished and had a view of the coast, it made me just want to stay there and admire its beauty. We got a tour of Casa de Manana and I was just speechless at everything it had to offer: Pool, beauty salon, massage room, bistro, cafeteria, library, gift shop, fitness class, and many many activities. We did not get a peak of the rooms, which I would have liked to see but it is understandable that elders live in them and maybe were not okay with that. The biggest thing that got me by surprise was the cost of living there, a single room was about $3,300 or so and the biggest was $11,000 a MONTH! This price is crazy, as Stephanie was saying the $11,000 is basically our tuition for the whole year and people here are willing to pay that much per month. This price was just very surprising, to think that my parents do not even make $11,000 a month got me by surprise but then again these are wealthy elders of which 40% had a college education. It is nice to see that people worked really hard during their younger years to save up or have a pension that allows them to live in a place like this, but we also have to think that maybe a lot of them are there because their children put them there but who knows. I am just happy to see that they get 3 meals a day, lots of activities and encouraged to join groups, activities, etc.
What I really liked about Casa de Manana is that most of the elders are all so friendly, it was so adorable seeing them and having them smile at us and say hi. It seems like they are very approachable and easy to talk to and I really like that about them (: During our social circle, we were able to talk to an elder and discuss stress and what motivates us but our elder, Alice, went on a different note. She discussed how she got to Casa de Manana and what she did as a career but also how she was a leader in organizing the women’s march that happened a few weeks back. She was so excited to discuss how she organized the groups to go, but most importantly she told us to learn our history so that we as women can keep standing up and make a difference. Alice also discussed a time when back in her days women were not allowed to own a house, it was usually the male household who could buy a home, but she went against this and fought until she was able to buy it. Alice is such an inspirational women, who has fought for the rights of women, she was one of the first women deans in a university. She goes on to ask what my peers and I want to do as a career and encouraged us to keep going for what we want to accomplish. Her main message was that due to the hard work from women in the past, today women have many opportunities available to us and that we need to work together in order to show the importance of women in society today. She also asked us what we got from her talking to her and as my peers and I agreed, it was to never give up and inspired us to continue our road with positive attitudes and social justice.
Talking to Alice was simple amazing, she made me realize that elders care about life and they still want to be active and engage in activities but also learn about us and how society has had an impact on how we think or go about our day. I think its amazing that Alice, 98 years old is living her life to the fullest by being physically active, playing her favorite sport (tennis) and organizing groups to attend events such as the Women’s March. She made a difference in my life by simply talking to her for a few minutes, she opened my eyes to be passionate about life and continue to work with women to have a society in which women are equal and to encourage women to take roles that society thinks only men should have. I always pictured elders in a retirement home as grouchy or not interested in engaging in activities or with younger adults but Casa de Manana and its elders proved me wrong. Elders today want to continue engaging in all sorts of activities or social events etc.
Being part of the Life Scholar’s Program has showed be the huge disparities within society. It is sad to see how elders in downtown San Diego are homeless or live in a shelter that are nothing compared to Casa de Manana. I love how there are programs that help elders in downtown San Diego but when you compare downtown with La Jolla there are very very big disparities. Having this program has opened my eyes so much and each day simply encourages me to be someone that can help with situations such as homeless elders, teens, etc. I am happy that I got to be part of this program and I hope to keep learning a lot from it to apply in the real world later on when my career begins.
What I really liked about Casa de Manana is that most of the elders are all so friendly, it was so adorable seeing them and having them smile at us and say hi. It seems like they are very approachable and easy to talk to and I really like that about them (: During our social circle, we were able to talk to an elder and discuss stress and what motivates us but our elder, Alice, went on a different note. She discussed how she got to Casa de Manana and what she did as a career but also how she was a leader in organizing the women’s march that happened a few weeks back. She was so excited to discuss how she organized the groups to go, but most importantly she told us to learn our history so that we as women can keep standing up and make a difference. Alice also discussed a time when back in her days women were not allowed to own a house, it was usually the male household who could buy a home, but she went against this and fought until she was able to buy it. Alice is such an inspirational women, who has fought for the rights of women, she was one of the first women deans in a university. She goes on to ask what my peers and I want to do as a career and encouraged us to keep going for what we want to accomplish. Her main message was that due to the hard work from women in the past, today women have many opportunities available to us and that we need to work together in order to show the importance of women in society today. She also asked us what we got from her talking to her and as my peers and I agreed, it was to never give up and inspired us to continue our road with positive attitudes and social justice.
Talking to Alice was simple amazing, she made me realize that elders care about life and they still want to be active and engage in activities but also learn about us and how society has had an impact on how we think or go about our day. I think its amazing that Alice, 98 years old is living her life to the fullest by being physically active, playing her favorite sport (tennis) and organizing groups to attend events such as the Women’s March. She made a difference in my life by simply talking to her for a few minutes, she opened my eyes to be passionate about life and continue to work with women to have a society in which women are equal and to encourage women to take roles that society thinks only men should have. I always pictured elders in a retirement home as grouchy or not interested in engaging in activities or with younger adults but Casa de Manana and its elders proved me wrong. Elders today want to continue engaging in all sorts of activities or social events etc.
Being part of the Life Scholar’s Program has showed be the huge disparities within society. It is sad to see how elders in downtown San Diego are homeless or live in a shelter that are nothing compared to Casa de Manana. I love how there are programs that help elders in downtown San Diego but when you compare downtown with La Jolla there are very very big disparities. Having this program has opened my eyes so much and each day simply encourages me to be someone that can help with situations such as homeless elders, teens, etc. I am happy that I got to be part of this program and I hope to keep learning a lot from it to apply in the real world later on when my career begins.