What I want to do when I grow old

It’s one of the most feared stage of ones life, growing old can’t be an easy thing. By the time you reach your early 30′s somehow you start to view your life in a different way.

If you’re still single, the desperation to find the perfect partner becomes a quest. If you’re married, you start to weigh up your options and having children seems to fast forward every stage of your existence, you start to find yourself being robbed of opportunities, and the road to being ‘old’ becomes a lot wider, and by the time you know it, you’re cruising through it 100 miles an hour, your lack of control becomes evident and that’s when fear starts to set in.

How can I embrace ‘growing old’ and accept life’s own terms? What is it that I fear the most? The obvious factors would be my appearance, loneliness, feeling obsolete, then I start to envision myself hobbling along and just waiting for God’s door to open, but that’s not an option I’m willing to take.

A prime example would be my mother, when she reached the age of 49 she enrolled herself to study a degree in Social Sciences at the Open University, with hard work and perseverance she achieved recognition and became Northern Ireland’s secretarial representative for the OU.

She has always believed in setting goals and believed in herself. For a 4’3″ Filipina woman she oozes confidence which I have always admired. When my step father died earlier on this year, never once I’ve saw her wallow in self pity, she was more determined to do well for herself and got a full time job, now she is on her way to becoming a Section Manager in one of the UK’s largest retailers. As for her appearance she seems to get better with age, she looks after herself, and never once I seen her unkempt or rugged, and she always takes compliments with grace and pride.

Another inspiration would be a couple that my husband and I met when we were on honeymoon in the Maldives. At the age of 60 they were both traveling the world and scuba diving, they told us all the places they have been to. I listened in awe and with out most respect for them, and wish I could accomplish the same when I reach their age.

Of course, seeing and experiencing the world is only a small portion of what I want to achieve. Living a healthy life is also one of the things that I have to implement to my plan, physical,emotional and mental well being is one of the secrets of long life.  A study showed that people who exercised twice a week in midlife were less likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s disease 20 years later. The most important thing in my opinion, is to cultivate a positive attitude, learning to adapt to change and to learn how to constructively deal with whatever life throws at you. Giving up is not an option.

With these thoughts in mind, does it make it easier for me to embrace the upcoming ‘Golden Years’?

I found myself visualizing what it would be like when I reach that stage of my life, and the more I think about it, the more the prospect excites me. I look forward to the days when my husband and I can experience what the world has to offer, to see the wonders of the world, from the Taj Mahal to the Great Barrier Reef.  I see old age as a definition of maturity and wisdom not a hindrance to live your life to the full.

“Many people think old age is a disease, something to be thwarted if possible. But someone has said that if any period is a disease, it is youth
Age is recovering from it.”
–T. C. Myers