Question: How did you navigate the changes in your career?
Answer: “I always knew I wanted to do something in medicine. In fact, one time my mom found me operating on her favorite doll. I started out in nursing and got my BSN. I worked as a school nurse for a while and I found out very quickly that the youth were not much better in terms of mental health and school problems and that continued to make me want to teach and educate. I just felt a calling to help people. While I was teaching at the school as a nurse, I got to be interested in clean air, water, birds, and nature. I realized I wanted to get into environmental education, so I got a master’s degree in environmental health at George Williams College. About that time, my husband and I had already started working part-time at Mammoth Cave National Park in the summer when school was out. I wanted to teach students about the world they lived in. I said when I was a kid that I didn’t want to be a teacher but about 20 years later I found out I had completely changed my mind. No matter the field, I just had a drive on the inside to help people understand feelings, emotions, stress, and help them move through. Whether it’s a young kid or a high school kid, I was just in a helping mode. When I was in nursing, I wanted my students to have empathy for their patients as they grew in their own different skills. I wanted them to be able to relate to other people.” – Zona Cetera, resident Friendship Village Chesterfield
#WeAreFriendshipVillage #seniorliving #retirementcommunity #FVatHome #assistedliving #MemoryCare
The above photo and text are part of a year-long project we call We Are Friendship Village. We are posting these photos and brief interviews to our website’s blog section every day as we talk with residents at Friendship Village Chesterfield and Friendship Village Sunset Hills. The idea is to give a short introduction to the residents who make up our wonderful senior living communities and give you a peek at something you might not know about them!
At this year’s end, we will publish A BOOK featuring all the great residents who participated. AND PARTICIPANTS get A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK! During this year, we will also be sharing these photos and stories on Facebook and other social media such as Instagram, so look for them and please follow the hashtag #WeAreFriendshipVillage to stay current with the project!
We think it’s a great chance to share a bit about who we are! Residents’ participation takes less than ten minutes, so it won’t take much time to be a part of it and we think everyone will enjoy getting to know their neighbors and friends a little bit better!
If interested in participating (or know someone else who might be), feel free to give us a call at (314) 270-7837 or email at nagysteve@fvstl.com or drop by the marketing suites in Sunset Hills or Chesterfield. We have 365 of these to do over the course of the year, so everyone is welcome!
We look forward to seeing you as we get to share insights about the senior living residents who are making our Friendship Village retirement communities so great!
Thanks again!