Older Adults

In my life of 21 years, I have had many experiences with older adults.  A considerable amount of those experiences have been rooted in family events or relations, however some have occurred through volunteering opportunities or work.  I have definitely formed an opinion on older adults, even though it might be based on a misconception or two.  Reality is, one day I too will be an older adult and hopefully that day stays far away for a long time.

            I have volunteered for the city of Spring Lake Park since elementary school and began employment with them when I was 15.  Being involved in events over the years has allowed me to come in contact with many older adults.  Spring Lake Park is a very small suburb with an older population.  Many of the people who work there as well as the clients they work with are in their later 60s.  Looking back, I always felt welcomed and special to be working with that group of people.  While they were slower at completing tasks and preparing for events, they had a lot of wisdom to share with me while we were getting things set up.  I loved that about my time with the older adults of Spring Lake Park.

            I also work for Archiver’s, a photo memory/scrapbooking/card-making store.  Our typical customer is a 65 year old, financially well-off woman, with a grey perm, who is holding a coupon.  These ladies who shop at my store love to talk to us, learn techniques from us, and share their stories and projects with us.  I have learned from working this job how to be patient and teach things to someone four different ways before they understand.  I also pick up quite a few little tricks that only wisdom knows.  Everyday I have wonderful interactions with them and I wouldn’t ever want a different customer base. 

            I consider my family to include myself, my parents, my siblings and their spouses, my niece and nephew, as well as all my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  My family is large and there is a good share of older adults that make up this family.  My grandmother had my mother at 43, which was quite old for 1955, and then my mother had me when she was 35, still a little later than most.  This sets the stage for me to have many older aunts and uncles who are in their 60s and 70s.  I have one aunt who has always supported me by attending extracurricular activities and people often times assume that she and her boyfriend are my grandparents.  It is a valid assumption because they are 70 and 75 and look like every other set of grandparents in the room.  However they are not the only people in my life who have been mistaken as my grandparents.  I can’t remember a day when my dad didn’t have his balding head of white hair.  There has been multiple times where he has been mistaken for my grandpa, and even recently he was referred to as my mother’s father. 

            Growing old in my family can be hard when feelings get hurt because certain people are assumed to be older because of the situation, but it has never been something anyone has seriously changed themselves to accommodate.  My aunts and uncles, and even my only living grandparent, my grandma, all seem to embrace the aging process by enjoying the perks it brings such as grandkids and even that 55+ menu at restaurants.  The older adults in my family get treated with the utmost respect.  There are moments where an older adult, such as my grandma or my aunt, will say a charged comment that I do not agree with, but I just bite my tongue to avoid disrespecting their values or opinions.  Personally, I have this rule in my mind that I need to always been extra smiley with the older adults in my life and talk slower and just a bit louder.  It always seems to produce a positive experience.

            I know I have misconceptions about older adults, that are true to a degree but I know they are wrong to generalize.  Older adults I know are conservative in their beliefs, move slower, and don’t understand technology.  These are things I don’t necessarily blame them for, but rather I am prepared to accommodate for these issues. 

            Honestly, it scares me to age.  I like to have a plan and know where I go next; well the thing about life is that it doesn’t always follow the plan we create for it, thus my apprehension.  I don’t want to think about myself aging, because that means my grandma is aging, my parents are aging, and this all leads to a lot of changes and adjustments I am not ready to deal with yet.  It is what it is and I can’t change it, whether I want to or not I guess I’ll grow up and deal with it.