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Hello, my name is Milagros Castellà Lorente, I am one hundred years old and I am very close to turning one hundred and one—the capicúa age—which is something that makes me smile, and that is why I am going to read you some words that I have written about what For me it means getting older and turning one hundred years old. It is titled “I do have the desire.”
A while ago, two friends told me that they had the sad and common idea of having lost their youth and that this took away their desire to live. There was no doubt that his life had been reduced to getting up, eating, going to bed, and looking blankly around him. I didn't agree with them and I don't agree now. That is why we are going to talk about whether it is possible to reach one hundred years, but with dignity, with hope. Is it necessary to greet friends by telling them how bad you feel and that you haven't slept well? Isn't it better to have a smile and good morning with the conviction that they are going to be good? I think it's a matter of proposing it. Stop thinking so much about themselves and what they were, perhaps be more objective in being pleased with the reality they have today and look for what good they can find.
There is no doubt that I am an optimist, because I share the fullness of life that surrounds us and, although I am sometimes overwhelmed by the speed with which it advances, we must take the best that it offers us. Of course we have to adapt, and although it is true that sometimes it is difficult, we must overcome it with a mind determined to live longer, and better. Living better, at our age, depends on ourselves. Walk, stroll, see the beauty of the environment in which you live. Eat, in moderation, and always have a concern. Be it literature, music, painting, a love of following certain sports or creating something with your hands. And perhaps, most importantly, communicate with others, have a relationship of common tastes and memories, accept them as they are and completely forget what we would like them to be.
So, forgetting the impossible myth, we can ask ourselves a couple of questions. Where is our limit? Is it possible for our vital clock to start where we left off with what we liked to do so many years ago? And to answer these questions, we just have to think calmly about what that 20th century was like, in which all of us who are here were born and spent our youth. I have repeatedly reiterated that the discoveries and advances that were made in that period of time were fantastic or incredible, and that new technologies changed our lives. We live, fortunately, in the 21st century and advances also reach us, those of us who have already passed through youth.
In Madrid, an aging study center has been created with specialized doctors, geriatricians, psychologists, epidemiologists, sociologists... and they are based, according to its director, on the fact that old age is not a disease. And of course diseases can be cured if you are treated. Living better depends on ourselves and I will not tire of repeating that this retirement, or rather, that old age that must come to all of us, is a question of attitude, of how we approach the problem. And why? Perhaps that person is careful in their clothing, in their way of expressing themselves, in their walk, what is called “body expression.” Could be.
But what is not true is that those who do not represent their age are because they have decided to lead a full life and forget about their fears, that fear that overwhelms us all when life presents us with something unpleasant. However, if we accept it and can overcome it, there is no doubt that we will live better. Some of you will have children, grandchildren and you will have heard those childish words that are used for everything that bothers you to do: “I don't feel like it.” And that's what we think when, before getting up, we discover that our neck, legs hurt, or simply that the planned walk is presented to us with this phrase: "I don't feel like it." Of course, the choice is difficult, but we can also think that either we let ourselves go, beginning at that moment the decline that is associated with old age, or we reason: we are going to jump out of bed. And live with the determined attitude to overcome these ailments, because today society offers us a multitude of possibilities.
I am not a doctor, but I can, for myself, for my friends, for the people around me, know that old age comes like a blanket that shelters us and barely lets us breathe. And this happens when we throw in the towel, the day we are not interested in going out, reading a new book or watching a hit movie. In a word: when we accept what we are without wanting to improve our way of living. From Ballesol Patacona radio, for all of Spain, Milagros Castellà.
