Making friends at 65: How Antara Living changed my life
Making friends at 65: How Antara Living changed my life
When I was young, in college and in my workplaces I would always be the most popular person around - I just loved talking to people! I knew who everybody was and they knew me. Anytime I saw someone new, I would just walk up to them and introduce myself. It was never difficult for me to talk to people.
But somehow as I got older, that started to change. With everyone getting more involved in their own families, I would feel like they didn’t have enough time for me. I was happy with the network I already had and spending time with my loved ones. However, my closest friend of 40 years suddenly told me one day that she was moving to another country with her family! I was shocked to my core and even though we spoke every day, I felt a lack of companionship and excitement in my life.
I was already retired and even though I was working part-time as a consultant, I wanted more. I wanted independence for myself and I wanted to experience a close-knit community. That is when my husband and I decided to move to Antara Senior Living’s Uttarakhand residence. We needed a change of pace from what we were used to and we wanted to experience our golden years as we had imagined them.
After spending some time here, we can now confidently say that this was the best decision for us. Here’s why:
Exploring our Passions:
While considering various options on how to spend our time and become more socially involved, a lot of online forums recommended that we should take new workshops and engage in activities that we were interested in.
That however was easier said than done for us. We were hesitant to go to classes that we knew nothing about and even when we did take a couple of trial sessions, the rooms were filled with younger people who were never interested in bonding with people several years older than them. Our Uttarakhand residence on the other hand organized several in-house workshops from gourmet cooking to pottery to art classes which were attended by people who were going through the same things in their life as us.
The conversations we had with them were much more at par with us and the people we met were often like-minded. Exploring your talents at 65 is exciting and scary, but it is so much easier for us to do so with a community that understands.
Independent Living
Since we married, our life had been one milestone after another, from kids to promotions to college to finally their weddings. We were so caught up in one thing or another all the time that we would hardly get time for ourselves.
When everything was settled and we finally had time to breathe, we wanted to go back to how it started - with us alone spending time with each other. Even though it took some convincing our families, having a home to ourselves after so long is a breath of fresh air. The place is well-maintained by a highly professional staff and our vitals are monitored every day.
Our children felt much better about the move after they so that we were well taken care of and they could visit us whenever they wanted to.
The house has all the amenities we need and is situated far enough from the city to allow us peace but close enough that we can keep ourselves engaged professionally and our lifestyles as busy as we want.
Exploring Nature
Overlooking Dehradun’s river valleys and at the foothills of Mussoorie, we have made the most of the scenic location here and gone on a few nature trails with our new found friends over weekends.
Having lived in Delhi our entire lives, we have craved for a place like this so often and it feels so good to finally have it. We have also been able to take better care of our health here with yoga activities, a health bar, gym, and swimming pool - which are also places to make new friends and engage in spirited conversations.
Socializing Spaces
Other than the workshops, well-designed rooms, and scenic location, they have also taken care of having engaging community spaces where we can read together in the reading room, eat with our friends at the multi-cuisine spaces or watch movies together in the theatre.
The Club which hosts a spa and salon, as well as dance and pilates classes for us is always something we look forward to.
Long story short, if you are a senior citizen wanting to meet like-minded people and live your life, Anatara Senior Living will give you plenty of opportunities to do that and a lot more than any senior citizen could need to stay young at heart!
Comments
Post a Comment