When I'm 85

A couple of factors first come to mind when I try to picture myself as an eighty-five-year-old man, the most obvious being health and appearance. No one wants to be a sickly elderly person, just as no one wants their appearance to change too much for the worse. Among these factors of aging, one also wants to remain social, function cognitively, be economically well-off, and continue to live in a good, positive environment. It’s interesting to think about how all of the choices I make throughout my life and the experiences I have will affect all of these factors of aging, whether negatively or positively, and help to form me as an older adult.

To start off, the most obvious factors of aging are health and personal appearance. I hope that as I age, I will still be able to maintain about the same general health that I currently have. Throughout my life, I would like to be able remain physically independent for a very, very long time and not have to rely on family or friends to have to take care of me. As learned in lecture, this can have negative effects on both me and the individuals who care for me, whether it be through stress, economical difficulties due to medical treatment and medication, or illness/disease of the caregiver resulting from becoming run down. I also hope that I am not very prone to disease when I become elderly, as are many older adults. I do not foresee myself as being troubled with any kind of impairment such as having diabetes, obesity, or arthritis. I do, however, think that I will probably have some form of memory impairment, such as Alzheimer’s Disease due to the fact that I have experienced a few concussions from playing basketball and football. This type of physical ailment also falls into the category of the cognitive/psychological aspect of aging.

Another issue that I hope to avoid is a decrease in mobility. I believe that injuries from playing multiple sports year-round and non-stop for about 15 years will potential cause some issues with the musculoskeletal system which could impair my mobility down the road. Vision is another issue which I worry about for my eighty-five-year-old self. This is because I currently use contact lenses and glasses to correct my vision, and while my vision is not terrible, it is by no means good for my age. The most unpredictable part of the factor of health in aging is contracting (or not contracting) diseases or illnesses. The truth is, though, that most diseases can only be prevented my limiting risks, and even then nothing is guaranteed. Thus, I cannot predict whether I will obtain a disease as severe as cancer or be prone to some illnesses as mild as colds. Along with all of the factors comes the Activities of Daily Living, or ADLs, such as eating, bathing, dressing, etc. I want to be able to complete these tasks independently and do not want to be limited by any physical factors.

The next factor of aging is the social aspect. As an