So far on my trip to Nashville, I have learned a few things. The first thing I learned is to not trust the time on a GPS. I was in charge of bringing the GPS on the trip, so I decided to bring my mom’s new Garmin that she had just gotten for Christmas. When we plugged in our destination, the estimated arrival time was about seven hours later, which was three hours shorter than the time on the MapQuest we received. Because of this, we decided to take an elongated lunch break and visit the Mizzou campus. So instead of arriving in Nashville around 6, it was over two hours later than originally planned.
Today, we got to sleep in a little and headed to our site around 10 this morning. Although it was located in a relatively sketchy part of town, the Fifty Forward Knowles site was a beautiful building that was in great condition. Upon going inside, I discovered how elegant and nice it was, as well as all of the people I went on to meet. We first met with Deborah Stillwell, who is the program director and she showed us around. We went into the knitting room and scrapbooking room, where we met some awesome ladies. I really hope to spend some time with them over the next few days; they seemed really great.
After a quick tour, we helped Deb prepare and serve a meal for the “first Mondays” program the have. After helping with that, we helped a case worked, LaTonyia, clean a woman’s house that was in very bad condition. Although I enjoyed doing both of these things, my favorite part has been meeting and talking to so many new people. At Fifty Forward, we met some amazing elderly women who were hilarious. We met some incredible people, including two women who were very eager to talk to us. One woman was a Filipino who was a photographer. She has been all over the world and hiked the Grand Canyon and Himalayas just a few years ago, and last year she ran a 5K. Everything she had done, at such an old age, amazes me. All of these elderly people have such a positive, fun attitude and a great sense of humor, which honestly kind of surprises me. I was expecting more of them to have slightly negative, depressing personalities based on my stereotyping. However, I’ve learned that the elderly have great personalities and are just as willing for fun and adventure.
I was very surprised by the quality of the Fifty Forward Knowles site. Mainly because it is an organization located only in Nashville, I assumed it would not have a lot of money and would have very mediocre, average facilities. However, the Knowles site—which is also the corporate office and headquarters—is very fancy. It is incredibly clean and very elegant. There are so many different activities and being a member is definitely an easy way to stay active and involved in the community.
After asking people at the Knowles site, we found some good places to go and site-see. Tonight, after making dinner, we decided to go and visit downtown Nashville around Broadway Street, the main tourist attraction for the local music scene. After having a difficult time finding affordable parking, we finally parked and walked around for a while. While the boys went to a bar to watch the National Championship game, the girls decided to keep walking around. We stayed and got ice cream and coffee, tried on cowboy boots, and listened to some ‘honky tonk’ country at a bar. It was a great night, and the day overall was a good experience.
-Julie
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