How Far Can People Look Forward with Confidence to Growing Old? Essay

Little kids always have dreams about growing up. They imagine being an astronaut, a firefighter, or a princess. When they’re young, all they want is to be old. Little do young children know, growing up has it’s side effects. Today, senior citizens make up a majority of the world’s population. While growing old, it has it’s benefits like learning from mistakes and becoming wiser. It also has it’s disadvantages like health risks. As people grow older, they come closer to death but also experience a lot throughout their life spans. While some people look forward with confidence to growing old, other fears the aging process.

Everyone who lives will eventually die. With life, comes death. A big question asked in today’s society is, “Where do we go once we die? ” Many religions have their own beliefs. One religion, Christianity, believes that through God’s son, Jesus Christ, we will live eternally in Heaven. In order to get to Heaven, one must live for God and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Without believing in Jesus, one will go to Hell. Christians who are strong in their faith and live by The Holy Bible know where they will go once they die, which provides them with confidence in growing old.

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Other religions, such as Hinduism, believe in reincarnation into a new form based on their previous life. If one lives a good and pure life and lives by the Rig Veda, they will be confident for their next life. Having a strong faith in a religion can instill confidence in a person when it comes to growing old. Some people, even without religious beliefs, can look forward with confidence to growing old. An example of this kind of person is Oprah Winfrey. Oprah grew up physically and mentally abused, never looking forward to the next day ahead of her.

She never thought she would be living life how she does now, as a world renown talk show host and hero for many. Oprah has established many foundations and organizations that supports charities, education of children, empowerment of women, and families in America suffering from poverty. She has also created many schools and orphanages globally, particularly in Africa. Not only has she gained so much joy from making a difference in the world, but she’s also gained the position as one of the Top 10 Wealthiest Women in the world. Oprah currently makes over 250,000,000 a year and is financially set for the rest of her life. Now as she’s getting older, she doesn’t have to worry about work or paying off any debts. She has the opportunity to live the rest of her life knowing that she’s made a difference in the world and will always be remembered. Because of this woman’s benevolent accomplishments, Oprah can look as far as she wants with confidence to growing old. This shows that those who work hard to overcome personal adversities can benefit from these efforts, thus changing their future proactively.

Although there are many positive factors that provide confidence in growing old, there are also many negative ones that can replace one’s confidence with fear. Health is a major issue with senior citizens. Alzheimer’s Disease is a non-reversible brain disorder that is very prevalent among senior citizens. This disease initially starts with memory loss and confusion, leading to behavior and personality changes as well as a decline in cognitive abilities, like decision making and language skills.

This disease is the most common cause of dementia among 65 year olds and older. There are no medications to slow the progression of this disease, which has taken over 90 percent of senior citizens in the U. S. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease is thought to reach about 107,000,000 people by the year 2050 and according to the National Institute of Health, almost 4,500,000 Americans are living with this disease. This health risk that comes with growing older can definitely hinder the confidence of a person because of the negative outcome.

Another reason why people today don’t look forward with confidence to growing older is because of financial stability. Currently, America is in the full throes of recession. The credit crisis won’t resolve itself for at least 20 years and banks are hemorrhaging citizens’ money. With growing old, comes retirement. People who are living in fear of their retirement are, namely, the baby boomers. These are people who were born after World War || to the mid 1960’s. Most of these people are approaching retirement but still have jobs and are living from paycheck to paycheck.

They’re relying less on social security provisions and more on investments and pension plans to survive. The population of these baby boomer senior citizens are increasing, providing the government with a fear that none of the citizens will ever get to any meaningful financial degree. This leaves these people in an uncertainty of how they’re going to support themselves after retirement, providing them with a trepidation of getting to that imminent point in life. People do look forward to growing old everyday, however, there are those who do not.

With growing older, one gets to experience life along with learning from it. People also have to experience hardships and turmoil. Elderly individuals want to look back on their lives and know that it was worth living. As a person ages, worries definitely increase when it comes to health and financial stability. Confidence is also instilled when a person has a strong belief or has made a positive difference in the world. Even though there will always be negative effects of growing older, there will always be positive ones too.

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