Introduction: Whistle While You Work

When you think of "older adults," those over the age of 65 to many people, what comes to mind...? Nursing homes, shuffleboard, and insensitive names like "old codger" or "old biddy" are a few things some people may think about when they think of older adults. This blog aims to change all of that with anecdotes of my experiences with older adults in my community.

When I was told about Psychology of Aging, I wasn't sure what to expect. A class focused on older adults in our society? What could possibly be interesting about something like that?  To my pleasant surprise, one aspect of the course was a service learning requirement - twenty to thirty hours over a ten week period as a component of our grade. A couple of weeks into the semester, we listened to presentations from a couple of organizations, and toured two assisted living facilities.

While there were parts of each opportunity that piqued my interest, upon touring The Renaissance, both an assisted living and memory care facility, I absolutely fell in love. The older adults there were lively, interesting, humorous, and absolutely nothing like the older adults I described in my introduction. What better way to disprove all of the things I've been told about older adults than to tell the world about my time with some of the most amazing older adults I have ever met? Over the next ten weeks (and likely much longer), this will be my goal. I hope to change peoples' minds about older adults, changing these people from a supposed burden to a wonderful blessing.