Growing old is a process that most people try to avoid for fear of losing one’s youthfulness. Society tells us that wrinkles, lessened mobility, and the age 50 and up are shameful and despairing. The Life Course Scholars readings and lectures have emphasized the problems with this perspective on the natural process of growing older and have shown me that “youthfulness” is a construct that can be expressed at any age of our life. In the first three weeks, we learned about and discussed the great wisdom of older adults, the value of intergenerational connections, and the problem of ageism. I have gained a better understanding of what it means to grow older and the many benefits that come with it. Before this class, the thought of growing old rarely crossed my mind. My knowledge of the elderly was limited because of little connections to and interactions with older adults in my life. I have good memories of a grandparent from when I was younger, but I never thought about how their age affected them or made them special. My mom had always told me she greatly respected elders for their wisdom about life and I had learned from her to think the same. Although I thought this way, I didn’t have the same experiences with older adults as my mom did and was unaware of exactly what she meant. The life knowledge and wisdom from elders is a topic that is discussed many times in this course and I was able to learn a lot about from the book Happiness is a Choice You Make by John Leland. This book showed me that older people tend to view life differently than any common young person because of the many experiences they have had and the circumstances they currently live in as they enter their last phase of life. The value of life became a lesson that was very present in this book and was shown through the characters' positivity and wide acceptance towards life. Something that stood out to me was the emphasis on the importance and the reality of challenges in life. I have learned that growth, change, and adjustments are a normal and healthy part of life and should be accepted as we age.
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Hannah CordeiroHannah Cordeiro is a Public Health major with a concentration in Epidemiology and a minor in ArchivesCategories |