This week in class we all got together and decided to go around the room to get a sense of everyone’s stress levels on a scale from 1 to 10. I told the class I was floating around a 4 to 5 just because this is my last quarter and I’m really trying to take it easy due to being stressed so much throughout my time in school. I really feel now I just want to focus on getting through school and minimizing my stress levels. Although I still have a lot a work to do this quarter, I’m just going to do my best and go about it stress-free. It was really interesting to hear other students stress levels in the class as well because you can get a sense that most of the stress was due to graduation being just around the corner and what people were thinking about what they were going to do with their lives in the future after they graduate. After discussing stress levels, we transitioned right into our book presentations about John Leland’s book “Happiness Is a Choice You Make,” which seemed fitting for what we just discussed. I found the book thus far to be quite satisfying because it shows how people in their later stages of life can still be happy even in declining health. I guess there has been a stereotype that has been associated with aging in that as one ages, they become unhappy however, this simply is not true. One of the main takeaways I got from this book presentation and discussion was the fact that I’m not going to dwell on the future so much and just enjoy the present with my friends and family. Lastly, we discussed some of the final details about our healthy aging projects and everyone is so excited about all of the upcoming events that we have planned.
This week we went to visit our friends at Bayside Community Center. The purpose of this visit was to engage with the seniors of the community in what we call learning exchange groups. Initially, when we arrived the seniors were busy working up a sweat in their Zumba class so we waited for them to finish. Once they completed their class, we informed them of what we would be doing then we got into our groups. The seniors were excited about as being there and we got into conversation right away. I was excited about this visit because I knew I would get the chance to hear about someone’s life when they were in their twenties whereas we typically hear about certain periods of our senior’s life when they are older. We conversed with Sue who was very enthusiastic about talking with us. Sue told us that when she was young approximately 18 years old that she got married early and in doing so that would actually help her husband be exempt from the draft. I found this portion of the conversation most intriguing because I wanted to learn more about how things were during those times. Sue told us that during the Vietnam War there was a lot of turbulence in the country because a lot of people were against the war and with the implementation of the draft she lost a lot of her friends who had to go to war. She then began to speak on some of the things that she did before she retired such as teach at a local high school and raise her children. After speaking with Sue, I got the chance to hear about my fellow LCS member’s lives while they were in their 20s and their stories were enjoyable and inspiring at the same time and I really appreciated the opportunity to listen them. Overall it was a very nice day visiting our friends and sharing memories with each other.
After a well-deserved spring break, the LCS crew met back at the classroom. It was great to see everyone again. At the beginning of class we went around to listening to everyone share what they did over their break. It was nice hearing how so many people were able to travel to other countries and perform volunteer work and how others were able to visit the family members. After sharing stories, we began to discuss our healthy aging projects. We formed our group and informed the class that we had initially wanted to do a vegetable garden but later decided to do something more personalized in the form of decorating masonry jars with succulent plants inside or maybe even herbs and spices. We thought this would be a great intergenerational activity for the seniors and us to take part in. We also planned on doing this activity at multiple sites. After presenting our HAP we were excited to hear about the other groups plans for their projects as well. One project that really stood out to me was the group that will be collecting different recipes from the seniors and doing some type of cooking based of the senior’s recipes. I think this is a great idea because not only does it allow for more social interactions but it also allows us to experience some of their culture through food and who doesn’t like food. The last portion of the class we all met up Prof. to give them more details about our healthy aging project. I thought this was a great resource because we were able to get additional insight on how to go about getting certain things done within our project and also we got some good contact information. All in all it was a joyous and productive day back in class.
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WAYNE B HARRISONWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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