Part 1: Who are you?
Who am I?
I am female of Hispanic ethno-cultural origin and my passion is in working with the elderly. I am currently taking up Psychology as part of the required course modules in the degree course that I am pursuing. I still live with my elderly parents and I have an older sister who I dearly love. I am very passionate and driven in my work with the elderly. I loved working with those diagnosed with Dementia and Alzheimer’s. I would love to be an instrumental contributor to uplifting their lives in whatever means I can: through a gentle touch, a warm story, or even by just listening to what they have to say. Moreover, I affirm that I am a high achiever, I am also diligent and responsible. My gentle and optimistic disposition enables me to share the compassion I have in my heart to the elderly, who I believe needs the emotional and physical support I can give most. I have been given much love and holistic support since my early years of growth and development; as such, I wanted to give back and share all the love I have, not only to my family members, but to other elderly people who need attention and genuine tender loving care. As I observe, I am more people-oriented and am not a material person at all.
What factors made me this person?
In reflective stance, I affirm that the factors that made me this person are as follows: the genuine love and holistic support coming from my parents and sibling made me a similarly loving and compassionate person. I have recognized early in my life through values and beliefs ingrained in my culture to take good care of the elderly and to accord them with the love and care that has always been given to young people, like us. Actually, I have observed that in our culture, family ties extend to relatives beyond the nuclear family and that through generations, we continue to express the love and emotional bond shared among family members. In addition, being female and Hispanic add to the characteristics and traits that enable me to express and share the love I have for the elderly. I affirm that Hispanics are very family-oriented with long lineage of relatives being included within the definition of the family. In addition, as much as we can, we avoid sending elderly relatives to institutions as we would love to live with them in the comforts of our home. Moreover, having only one sibling, my elderly sister, who is equally supportive of me, makes me emotionally balanced. As such, I have this feeling of wanting to share to others, especially to the elderly, how it is to feel loved and cared for. The feeling of satisfaction in my being needs to be shared to others as my way of giving back the blessings I continue to receive.
Part 2: Interview of the “Other”
The person I interviewed as the “other” is a pretentious girl who values money and the high society and does not care about anyone’s emotions. She relayed that she belongs to the high income group and her parents are entrepreneurs. Likewise, she said that she is an only child. As such, when she was growing up, she was alone most of the time. When she started school, she sought the company of friends who share the same income status as she has. From the time she recognized that she can socialize and leave the comforts of her luxurious home, she tried to find ways to address the loneliness and isolation she said she felt inside. She found the company of friends fulfilling, as well as buying material things. She is a white American and her circle of friends are predominantly white.
I explained that I would like to understand her experiences from her personal perspectives: why she did or started living the way she currently does. She said that the time and effort she saw invested by her parents for her personal growth and development were deemed to be unbalanced or insufficient compared to the time spent working in their respective businesses. As such, the only way she could cope with the loneliness and isolation is to seek the company of people – actually, anybody, who would be willing to spend some time with her.
When I tried to communicate to her how my experiences uplift me and provide me with a feeling of fulfillment, I saw that she could not even relate to what I was saying. Her initial reaction was that my activities and endeavors seemed to be boring to her. She said it is a total waste of time spending long hours talking to the elderly when I would not have anything in return.
I observed her to be reflective at some point. She admitted that despite being given with all the financial support, the feeling of loneliness from the physical and emotional absence of her parents left a huge void that could not be filled with just about anything that money could buy.
