The book "Selling the Fountain of Youth: How the Anti-Aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old-And Made Billions" was eye-opening to me because I never thought that there was an industry out there that focused on anti-aging. The book mentioned how aging is not classified as a disease, yet it is treated like one with all the societal perceptions and various treatments for it floating out there. Even I would agree that before reading this book, I also viewed aging with some sort of a negative outlook. Being bombarded with anti-wrinkling creams and Botox advertisements, I saw getting old as a thing you would want to avoid because it felt as if the media portrayed that being old equated with unattractiveness and lesser self-worth. After reading this book, I saw how easy it was for the industry to target and take advantage of older individuals and their self-esteem with these kinds of advertisements and hormonal treatments to extract money from them. Honestly, I'm still slightly afraid of getting old because there's still a lot of things I want to do and accomplish, but I'm gradually learning to embrace the aging process.
On Saturday, we went on a tour of affordable housing options for seniors in San Diego organized by our lovely Professor Lewis and Professor Bussell. One thing I like about the Life Course Scholars program is the ability to learn through going out on trips to see the places for yourself rather than relying only on textbooks and informational videos. The trip was not only informative but also a humbling experience. We were able to see the differences and inequity in the affordable housing senior options that we visited and learn about the services that each location offered. We also learned about the challenges that were faced in solving this inequity and homelessness in the senior population. Some of the differences I noticed were the size of the rooms, the kitchens and bathrooms offered and the air quality. Some places were stuffy and dim while others had a fresh breeze and lots of natural lighting. One highlight of the trip was singing happy birthday to one of the residents in the Potiker Family Senior Residence. He took a video of us singing to him because he was joyful to be sung happy birthday to. I think that he felt touched by it. It made me think of how seniors like social interaction too and being appreciated. However, some places may not be able to provide this for them due to the layout of the space and lack of community events.
On Saturday, we went on a tour of affordable housing options for seniors in San Diego organized by our lovely Professor Lewis and Professor Bussell. One thing I like about the Life Course Scholars program is the ability to learn through going out on trips to see the places for yourself rather than relying only on textbooks and informational videos. The trip was not only informative but also a humbling experience. We were able to see the differences and inequity in the affordable housing senior options that we visited and learn about the services that each location offered. We also learned about the challenges that were faced in solving this inequity and homelessness in the senior population. Some of the differences I noticed were the size of the rooms, the kitchens and bathrooms offered and the air quality. Some places were stuffy and dim while others had a fresh breeze and lots of natural lighting. One highlight of the trip was singing happy birthday to one of the residents in the Potiker Family Senior Residence. He took a video of us singing to him because he was joyful to be sung happy birthday to. I think that he felt touched by it. It made me think of how seniors like social interaction too and being appreciated. However, some places may not be able to provide this for them due to the layout of the space and lack of community events.