The Best Day of the Month

Today is my favorite day to work at the Cahokia Area YMCA each month. This has nothing to do with work itself, but is more about the more to do with this Y’s identity and role that it plays in this area as a community center. I have said this before, but want to repeat that before working here I viewed Y’s as simply “swim and gyms”, but my view of Ys has changed. The one that I work at is equally about being a community center as it is a place to work out. We offer teen mentoring, leadership, and volunteer programs for teenagers many nights a week, after-school child watch after where children can get their homework done (and receive help with it)and play while parents work-out, and specific workout classes and other activities for the older people in the community. Today epitomizes the community center aspect of this Y.

The AOA (Active Older Adults) holds their monthly potluck at my Y on the last Wednesday of every month. So this means that once a month I get to enjoy a large meal and spend time in the company of some of the older men and women in the area. The monthly AOA potluck is more than just a time for older people to get together, talk, and share a meal together, but it also offers an opportunity to take part other activities as well. These have included pumpkin carving, tips from a police officer about how to stay safe when shopping and out and about during the holiday season, planning and coordinating for our Healthy Kids day and other upcoming events at the Y.

I did not realize until a few years ago how much I enjoyed talking to older people, and that it seems like I would always come away learning something. It could be about past history from their lives, about the life of a small town community, or some other wisdom. It seems like it is always a positive experience. (Today’s conversation highlights included memorable snow storms in the area in the last thirty years, how they can correlate with an increase in population nearly a year from now, and about credit card scams and bank system compromises.) This realization did not come to me easily. I believe it started in high school when I volunteered with older women at a Catholic Charities second-hand store. But, it really took hold late in high school and throughout college as I became closer with my grandmother. I continue to feel an absence in my life with her no longer around (see Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own) but am glad that I was able to really get to know her well in the last years of her life. I am grateful that I “grew up” in the sense that I was able to move past seeing her as someone who much older, old-fashioned and mostly disconnected from the world from which I lived, to a view of her as a normal adult who I could connect with about the past, life from the Great Depression to the 21^st century, family life, and many other amazing things. I felt like I could talk to her about events in my life, her life, or in the world, and that it was not much different than talking to anyone else. I wish I could have always held that view and always recognized the real value felt for spending time really getting to know and learning from my grandmother, and other older people instead of having what I believe is a typical young person’s view that many of us go through that they are simply older, out of touch, and generally ok to be around (but not for too long) and taking their presence for granted. I am glad that I have the opportunity every month to continue to be engaged in that part of learning and personal growth. (I must admit, however that once a month is great, I’m not sure I could do it every day.)

I continue to fill blogs with ways in which this year and experience has contributed to my personal growth, but there is a one way in which working at this specific Y contributes to what could be a new direction for me. I feel fortunate that my Y has made itself a community center; it is a place where normal people from completely different age groups, backgrounds, etc. with real issues and stories can come together, because it is the first time I feel involved in an actual local community. I have not felt any investment in, or true grasp of an adult-sense of local community up until this point. I mentioned in my last post how I am becoming more drawn to state politics, but, taking it down another level, I feel myself becoming more interested in the inner workings of towns, cities, and communities. I find myself desiring to learn more about how certain neighborhoods are affected by different policies, how one decision in a community affects the real life people, and what changes really mean on a basic level. (I promise much more on this new interest in blogposts in the future). As my boss says “city politics is where all the real action is”. It will be interesting to find out where this action and interest leads me. Perhaps you will find out with me.