There are a great number of things that get better with age: wine, cheese, antiques, friendship, and most importantly people. Many people face a lot of adversity during their 20’s and 30’s.
Why should the brooding continue when being an older adult? It does not, and here are seven things that get better with age:
- The main stressors of the “prime-age” are financial instability and an overwhelming number of responsibilities. However, those stressors fade as financial burdens are lifted.
- Memory and memorization can improve as people age. This is especially true with semantic memory – long-term memory that is developed from personal experience.
- Stress, rather the lack thereof. Older adults improve their stress-management skills compared to younger people. There are many things that contribute to older adults growing carefree attitude, one being their position in the job market. Older adults are in the stage of continuous relaxation by being surrounded by friends and family.
- Decision-making: Decision-making is an ability sorely lacking in younger adults. As you age, life experience and wisdom gained allow for better decision-making or judgement calls.
- Storytelling: The age and experiences built on older adults give them an exciting set of memories for storytelling. Usually, younger adults provide the essential details of a story, while older adults go into depth when telling stories.
- Self Confidence: Older adults become more self-confident. They become more comfortable with themselves. Older adults no longer attempt to make other people happy.
- Wisdom: It is commonly used interchangeably with knowledge or intelligence. While their definitions are fairly similar – the biggest difference is the application of knowledge. For example, “knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting tomato in a fruit salad.”
It is hard to find the positives in aging when society values the younger generation. Of course, that should not be viewed negatively, as they are the future of society. However, it creates an ageist view and tends to lower the self-esteem of the elderly. In some broad sense, professionals that typically assist the elderly contribute to that ageist mindset. Although, the professionals do it for the health and benefit of the elderly. These seven traits are a reminder that getting old is not bad. The saying, “It gets better with age,” should be used more, to create an incentive that aging is part of life and should be viewed more positively.
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By: Richardson V. Neth
Senior Care Advising Intern at WellPath Partners
Human Development Student at California State University, Long Beach
