To become a Life Course Scholar Alum as soon as I submit this last blog post, feels bittersweet, as to be expected. Bitter because we were robbed of our second quarter experiencing the aging process and the in/equitable resources folks have in different areas in person. Bitter because this class was so educational and my favorite course for the past six months and now its ending. Yet sweet because I was able to meet all the lovely individuals in this cohort, make connections and build a more solidified picture of what I’d like to do careerwise, enhance my relationships with the older adults in my life, be educated on ageism and learn so much in real life and from readings/current events. I feel so happy and lucky to have gotten this experience, this class never felt like painful work or a drag, it was always a warm space to be a part of. It never felt boring or lame, it was so exciting to get off campus and meet new people and that was “class.” I feel like I’m at a loss of words to explicitly describe the feeling of not fully comprehending that this is it, this is over, I won’t get to see Dr. Bussell or Dr. Lewis or my classmates every Wednesday anymore. But the other part of me feels so happy to have found new friends that care about old people as much as I do and who I’ll still speak to even after this all ends, as well as professors I hope I can reach out to be part of mine or their research. I can’t really explain how much I’ve learned in this two-parter course and yes I’m basically reiterating the same sentence in different ways, but I can’t even remember who I was before this year started. It’s been a wild ride since January, and here I am, its June, its my birth month, I’m turning 20, I’m going to enter this new decade in my life and I have the “I hated my twenties” phrase echoing in the back of my head by all the older folks I heard say that, and all I can think about is: If I want to be happy at 80, I have to play like chess, I have to work backwards and do what makes me happy now. And I think that’s a major takeaway that I have realized: happiness is a choice. And I choose to be happy to be in the present, happy to be able to learn so much and so hands-on, happy to age, and happy to teach others why ‘old’ isn’t a bad word. In the end, all I can say is thank-you. Thank you to my professors who made this class exist and support us fully throughout and beyond the classroom. Thank you to my peers for being curious. Thank you to anyone reading this. Thank you for listening to me like older folks want to be listened to. I literally look forward to living in Sardinia or any other Blue Zone, eating a plant-based diet and living past 100 now and I’m not sure 2019 Sophia would’ve said the same. Goodbye forever Life Course Scholars 2020, yes I’m crying :( (I learned saying 'goodbye forever' is good for closure.)
Today we presented the final product of our So Tell Me… Healthy Aging Project. This idea was inspired by Cut’s “Keep it 100” series where they ask 100 people of different ethnicities, gender, ages, etc the same question and put them together. We wanted to make a version of our own that truly painted the aging population as positive, wise, and educated individuals. I loved every experience of working with my group, they are all such hard working people and great communicators and I’m so thankful to have been inducted late (due to COVID) but warmly accepted into the works of this project. Looking back on the experience, I was grateful to have recruited my friend to interview their parents because I learned that after the interview, he was able to have a heart-to-heart with them. His parents were able to tell him how proud they are of him for accomplishing so much that they were unable to do themselves due to the sacrifices they had to make for their family. He was also able to thank them as he understood more about what they had to give up, how difficult it was for them, and how all his hard work made his parents feel as though everything they gave up was worth it. I had this similar experience when I had interviewed my grandma for my original oral history project. This is often a hard conversation due to the cold tendencies in our Latinx culture, so I’m glad I was able to offer those opportunities to my friend as well. As far as the outcome of our video, I was so inspired by listening to what they had to say and truly integrate those ideas into my life. As I’m about to enter a new decade of my life, I just want to fill it with chasing after my education, being happy with minimal to no regrets lol, and just be present with time. I want to look back and know that I followed the advice that was given to me, it's like a cheat in life and I’m so lucky to understand and digest that concept fully.
In class today we presented our Neighborhood Age-Friendly Assessment, in which I did mine on my hometown, North Fontana. My family moved to Fontana around 1995 as it served as an attractive home for new families, offering affordable housing. I have since lived here, in the same exact house, since I was five months old. Fontana is all I know, but I actually didn’t know a whole lot on the development of it, its future plans and goals, and how, in particular, it would support the aging population, such as my grandparents. When I had first completed my project, I was so excited and happy with my city for including an aging plan to allow the citizens who were attracted in the 80’s and 90’s to age in place. Some things I found were questionable as there was no movement or growth in the plan even though this master plan for change was written in 2015, but I gave them the biggest benefit of the doubt. Still, I learned that Central and South Fontana played an essentially important role in supporting the senior community in Fontana with having a train station, a community recreation center designed specifically for senior events, but still, no green spaces. In North Fontana there were plenty of green spaces, the buildings and sidewalks were designed to be wide enough for both strollers and walkers to go through them, so I thought wow, what a beautiful place for them to age. There are healthy and lively parks and intergenerational opportunities for them to engage in in North Fontana. And though the transportation wasn’t super flexible since they only came once an hour and are spaced far apart, I still had hope for growth that was inclusive of our older adults. But while going through the WHO checklist to measure truly how “age-friendly” my town is, I found that there was no affordable housing, hospitals, or public healthcare in North Fontana. However, at the time I presented my project, I had obtained advanced knowledge on who my mayor, Aquanetta Warren, is and her actual goals for my city. I learned that 60% of our funding was going towards supporting Fontana PD and that she vocalized acknowledging North Fontana as “the rich area” and South Fontana the “poor area”, though all the aging resources are in South Fontana. I began figuring out that this growth and boom specifically in North Fontana was intentional and it was really disappointing. Although, as a small city with 200k residents, many of my friends and others began to speak out about the injustices occurring in our own city. And though we’re focused heavily on the racial inequities we face as a predominantly Black and Brown community, I hope to eventually voice my concerns for the age gaps and disparities.
|
sophia jara Archives
June 2020
Categories |