Getting Old: Better than Expecte

Society is big on staying and looking young. People are constantly working out, watching what they eat, and getting surgeries such as botox and breast augmentation. Our society is too concerned on looking youthful. Morrie had aging in better perspective, "The young are not wise, they have very little understanding about life. Who wants to live every day when you don't know what's going on? When people are manipulating you, telling you to buy this perfume and you'll be beautiful, or this pair of jeans and you'll be sexy… It's very simple. As you grow you learn more. If you'd stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, it's growth." Aging is more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you're going to die and that you live a better life because of it.

Successful aging is a complicated and multifaceted concept that varies contextually among individuals, disciplines, and even time. Gerontologists have traditionally considered a person to have aged successfully upon having reached old age with their physical health, mental well-being and spirit still intact. Ultimately, successful aging is a matter of personal perspective, largely influenced by an individual 's values and experiences. Even those within America 's elderly population hold conflicting perspectives on what it means to have aged successfully. A qualitative study published by Reichstadt and Sengupta titled Older Adults ' Perspectives on Successful Aging, concluded that “older adults viewed successful aging as a balance between self-acceptance and self-contentedness on one hand and engagement with life and self-growth in later life on the other” (Reichstadt, "Older Adults ' Perspectives on Successful Aging: Qualitative Interviews", pp. 567-575.)

Humans are born already aging. There is know way to stop the process of getting older. As people age it is important that services and rescores are set up to

Aging is a part of our life that the majority of us do not want, but it will happen regardless of what we do. When we are a little kid, all we want to do is grow up and be a big kid. When we become older we realize that wish we never said that, and seem to wish that we could go back in time. We always miss when we were younger, when we could be childish, do stupid things, and people would not think us to be weird. Then, they thought it was adorable, seeing a little kid doing stupid and funny things. Being a kid gives a sense of freedom; we have no burden thinking about school grades, or if we are going to pass the class. On the other hand, as a college student, there are so many things to do such as assignments, homework, quizzes, exams, and maintaining grades, but as we get older we become more responsible. Aging is inevitable and all that matters is what will we do with that time. If we waste it then we will not be happy with how our life turned out and we will keep saying, “wish we could go back”. In Mitch Albom’s biography, Tuesday with Morrie, Morrie Schwartz had a better perspective on aging and embracing his age: "It’s very simple. As you grow, you learn more… Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth” (Albom 118); certainly, popular culture tends to fear aging and even avoid the concept altogether, as indicated by Schwartz’s protégé, Mitch, who side-stepped his own age the closer he came to “forty,” for fear of “professional oblivion” (Albom 117). Those who wish

The aging process in late adulthood is called senescence. People cannot stop the effects of aging but there are alternatives that can help ease the process. These measures are not always followed because people make poor life choices such as smoking. Aging adults will even spend millions of dollars trying to slow the process of aging. No matter how much money they spend aging will occur.

Something we talked about in class is that “old” is not a certain number. It is different for every person. There is no one age that means a person is aging. There are a lot of factors that go into determining if someone is aging. Physical health and mental health have a huge influence. There are so many myths about today’s old folks like they are neglected by their children. Life can be dynamic when one gets into older life, especially if kid’s lives change and become more complex. The book defines aging as, “a biological, psychological and social process, starting at birth and ending at death.” (16) In a process called life course perspective in which takes parts of the older life and connects it with earlier life experiences. There are four

Knowing how to age successfully rather than searching for youth should be the key. According to Dan Buethner (2008), ageing only has an accelerator pedal and most American’s are pushing it too hard and too much!. Health and longevity are the key to living a progressive life and optimizing

A quick Google search for common myth about aging will yield about 12,000,000 results. The magnitude of the number leads you to believe that, as a society, we are completely disillusioned by the process of getting older. We are assume, as a society that as you age your brain shrinks, you will be cranky and unhappy, dementia, weight gain, muscle loss and loneliness are unavoidable. The picture painted by these myths is ugly and possibly reinforce the idolization of youth and beauty in American culture. No one want to volunteer for the possess of getting old if it is so stigmatize, let’s face it no one wants to turn into the grumpy, old, deaf blind, intelligent oaf that is described by the media.

“Age is a limit we impose upon ourselves.” That quote by Chang shows that being old may not be a disadvantage to all but to most of us it is. It is a disadvantage to most because; the normal person does not have the mental toughness to make the best out of non-perfect situations. Once you're able to do that, no matter how old or ill you are you will still be

Aging is natural. Every species ages on Earth. Humans seem to be one of the rare species on Earth that works so adamantly against aging, rather than

Growing older is something we will all experience. It is also known that humans live longer

For decades, we have all heard of the “Golden Years” and although it is unknown who perpetrated that highly ironic myth, becoming older certainly don’t seem golden. As almost seniors, those between 45 and 65 years of age, we find that we sometimes are no longer cherished in the workplace.

Whether I likes it or not I am going to get old. After reading about aging I never thought I would be pre-prepping my future. It is like as I image my life I am imagining how I want it set up. I do not want to find no mistakes in my life even though I will encounter some but at the same time I do not want none at all. Think about all the scary things that comes with getting old and then I think to myself why can’t I stay the age I am now. I don’t want to do this in life, can I skip this age or can I go back to thing age. I am just not ready for what happens when I turn a different year ever year.

Since reaching the age of 44 years old activities that 40 year olds do has not stopped me from being active. Besides recognizing and feeling the age of 40 something it feels great nothing has changed, the only thing that comes upon me is the maturity and experience of what to do and how to do it. Age has not crept up on me yet I only have one gray hair in the middle of my scalp, I feel well rested physically and mentally being 44 years old. People in their 40s’ complain about their health, keeping youth, how long to live by making too many doctors’ appointments, and getting tarot cards or zodiac readings. By the time I got to my forties strangers wanted to know what products I use to stay youthful. As a result of keeping the crow’s feet off my eyes and mouth, there are special kinds of lotions and creams I use to stop the process of any effects of skin aging and damage from happening.

Like most people in American society and culture, when I hear the term aging it is almost always thought of negatively. Americans have become obsessed with finding ways to live a longer and healthier life and when one of those people here the term ‘aging’ it is viewed as a detriment to their thought of living longer. It is often a scary thought because people assume that the best years of their life are behind them. I personally do not feel physically as old as I do mentally. I am weary, however, as life goes on that my body will eventually catch up to my mind. I hope however that I can be healthy all around at an older age because I would hate to be ill and not be able to enjoy life at its greatest potential. I believe that most people, including myself, have the perception that aging limits your mobility. People often assume that the once you get to a certain age you will be limited to where you can live and must be forced into a retirement home. This perception more than likely is false, and perhaps coming from individuals that have seen loved ones not being cared for and have taken a similar path. This perception most likely comes from observation of adults telling younger ones by word of mouth however untrue it may be.