The course readings so far have put my perspective intensely into my grandparents and older adults in my life. The first 5 chapters of Happiness is a Choice You Make has made me think of my grandmother in almost every chapter. Though she has passed on, I think back so much to stages of her life when she was alive. I grew up with my grandparents, so I think I have a different perspective and relationship to them than most American’s. I remember being one of few kids in elementary school who live with their grandparents. In chapter five when the author and participants in the book talk about love after loss, it deepened my understanding for love after loss. I’ve also come to understand more ageism and its different agents. Things like microaggressions to the community. As I talked about above, I’ve always been considerably aware of ageism due to seeing first-hand the frustrations it can bring the older population. Last quarter in another HDS class, I worked with a mentor who was in the Life Enrichment field at a retirement home, and she also discussed to me how frustrating it can be for her as a professional to see her residents be infantilized so significantly. In some of the readings that was talked about, and I also thought of my mentor. Some of the residents were highly respected surgeons, college professors from top universities, amongst many other respected professions and they would share how frustrating it would be to be talked to like they were children. I think through the readings and just discussing in class about the older population it has further emphasized what amazing and resilient people are throughout their entire life course, and that it’s important not to diminish these things after they hit retirement.
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AuthorMikayla Pratt is a Human Development Science major with a specialization in Healthy Aging. She is from Archives
March 2022
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