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Hello, my name is Allison Brooks and I am 22 years old. I’m currently finishing up my BSW in social work and aiming to eventually become a counselor. One interesting fact about me, I’m a huge music lover! I’m constantly listening to some form of music and I enjoy the emotions and fun that music can bring regardless of how it is performed. As in for the reasoning for joining this class, I understand that as a social worker you will come across plenty different people and situations and understanding aging and how to interact with the elders within society is an important aspect to learn and succeed as a social worker. I hope to learn in this class to better approach certain situations and conversations when it comes to age and that I gain knowledge as well. As for my experience with older adults, I have experience in a more so personal way due to contact with older family members and listening to their stories and situations.
When it comes to the concept of later life and older adult hood, I imagine being further in life in terms of career, family, and dreams. I think of someone who has reached a decent but temporary stand still on their lives, possibly focusing on new hobbies, family, and other later in life choices. Even placing myself in this scenario, the chronological age that I would consider myself an older adult is 50, I believe I will look younger than i actually am because that is a genetic trait that has shown through many of my family members. I hope to feel content with my choices and enjoying myself the fullest. I would like to imagine I would be imagining I would be working and traveling to pass the time. The thing that would bring me the most pleasure in that stage of my life is just content, I want to be happy with any decisions I have during that time and not having the pressure or feeling of doing something wrong during that time period. Even while imagining and thinking about the future good parts of aging, there is always a fear that hangs at the back of my mind, the fear that when it is my turn to be an older adult I will not have the society and environment to properly enjoy my older age. It is concerning for many reasons but the thought and possibility of not being able to live a later life with contentment and worrying about constantly having to fight against outside factors for the rest of my life is quite a worrying feeling.
Allison,
Thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts. We all appreciate it. I can tell your experience with older adults is limited and that you haven’t yet had the chance to spend a lot of time with folks who are older, right?
For many of us, 50 was the moment when our career was at its highest point, and not the beginning of older adulthood. It’s difficult to gage that when you are younger and haven’t experienced a lot of contact with older adults.
I am curious about the fear you have about aging. You talk about not have the ability to enjoy your aging. You mention you fear not having the society or environment where that is possible, but I’m not totally sure what that fear is about. We will talk a lot about the challenges that face older adults personally, culturally and societally. My hope is that this will help you more fully expand those fears and gain additional knowledge about how to work with older adults.
I look forward to many conversations.
Dr P