This week I went to my cohort’s HAP project event at the West Center in Downtown. Their project was a Fashion Show theme to give older adult there a chance for a makeover by providing donated cloths, jewelry, a face mask, self-massage, manicure, and coloring destress time. I helped set up the clothes section and the amount of clothes available was amazing to see. But the most beautiful thing I saw was the lightened-up face of many people looking for their clothes. I then migrated to the coloring station to talk to someone that was alone. I began to talk to them by asking “How are you doing today?” I never imagined the impact that question can have on someone because they just began to open up to me with a surprising comfort level. Our conversation made me realize that everyone wants to be heard and to be comprehended. They began to tell me that they were so outgoing and vibrant before, but they went through a traumatic event three years ago and is now starting to talk to people and be comfortable talking to people like we were talking. Again, I realized the events that people go through happen so quickly and can create a 180-degree change in your life. No one can know the circumstances one can go through, so we must all be kind and empathetic to everyone! Later I migrated to the nail station and I met so many people! They all left a mark on my heart with their endurance, their resilience, and beautiful hearts!! I was able to start conversation with a lot of people and I got to learn that someone would come all the way from Chula Vista through transit to be able to spend the whole day their and volunteer because her doctor told her not to be stationary or else she would be sick. And someone was so happy to receive clothes because their clothes were recently stolen so they were limited in clothes. And another person felt so honored to be having someone do their nails. And I met so many more people by doing their nails (which I love to do I would love to paint my mom’s nails). It was such a rewarding day to meet everyone and have a conversation with them because it inspires me to talk to someone and spark a conversation with many more people to gain so much more knowledge and understanding.
It is ever so amazing how we cross paths with people and discover so much from them. The meaningful conversations I had today have impacted me for the greater because of their beautiful personalities. Gary, age 71, was the first person I talked to this morning with my peer Jason. Gary began to talk about his passion: which is mentoring a few young men in Ghana, Africa. He began to talk about how hard working and creative they are. His eyes would light up talking about them and describing the goals they had and how he loved helping them create a better future by guiding them and giving them advice. It was amazing to see how filled his life was with adventure and happiness. I would have never imagined it. He is a living proof of my ideology that everyone has their own story and it is our adventure to find out a part of it. Then, a volunteer came and sat next to me. I normally am not the one to spark a conversation, but I decided to step out of my comfort zones and ask her “has someone asked you these questions?” Side note: we were given conversation cards and we on the table for us to use as reference. One of the questions was “what are your passions?” and she reversed it and asked me what my passions were. I told her mine were nutrition and the effect of nutrition, but also the effects of experiences and the environment can have on people during childhood more specifically low-income and gang affiliated neighborhoods (that’s another conversation haha). But she began to tell me that’s amazing and how it is true the effects are either positive or negative. Then she asked me if I wanted children and I said maybe one. And then she said, “oh that’s a goal but sometimes that doesn’t happen.” She had four children: one girl and three boys. She then showed me her ring her daughter gave her. Her golden ring had her four children’s names and their birthstones. I thought it was the most precious thing and she had it on her ring finger. This really showed her children are her life and she valued them so much. She told me how she worked at the balboa hospital until she retired and how she was known as a caring, cheerful, and responsible worker. She said that if you really like your job you don’t work one day and honestly yeah, it’s true. That is my goal in life to become someone who is making a difference while enjoying everything I do. She began saying how she loved her job and tried to be cheerful and treated everyone with respect, honesty, kindness, and treating people the way you want people to treat you. She said there was one person who was quite a negative person, but she always tried to cheer him up with a joke and she did once! She said no matter how stressful the situation she always tried to lighten the mood with jokes. She then told me “why did the orange stop in the middle of the world?... because it ran out of juice.” Gosh it brightened up my whole day! She is my role model and someone I will admire for my life because she kept it so positive. Then I asked how she stayed positive during rough days, then she gave me suggestions. She said she would go to a mirror and look at her reflection then literally speak to herself expressing her anger and letting it out. She said it work and another distresser is talking it off with people over coffee. She really valued laughter and cheerfulness in relationships with people. Then she told me she said have a good breakfast and said to always have meals with either your family or loved ones and have a nice conversation. To always express yourself.She emphasized that there are consequences to your choices, but you do have a choice. This really caught my eye because she was teaching her children how your choices in life are important to create your future and how you want to live it later. She had so much wisdom and lived an interesting life. She was actually a volunteer there at the West Center and wanted snacks, but she ended up giving me the best advice at the right time including telling me when someone has a stuffy nose, whiff pepper around their nose to help them sneeze.
Today in class we shared our Capstone projects which targeted debunking ageism. This project was so rewarding to make because all my knowledge of the whole year was being mixed into this project and collaborating into one huge debunk. The myths that we were debunking were once thoughts of mine and to see how much I learned and was able to debunk was very rewarding. Then, seeing all the other’s debunking was amazing because they were all so creative. Especially Grace’s project with memes. She used memes to capture the younger audience and make it enjoyable to start thinking about ageism.
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MARICELA CANOWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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