“Youth isn’t wasted on the young. Everything has its time. You live your life, you enjoy your friends, enjoy your beliefs because without those dreams, life isn’t worth anything. I loved my teachers, enjoyed the activities, the wonderful places you go and travel. But I enjoyed where I am now mostly. 35 is when you are making your plans for the future. Now I live the future everyday.” Resident Ruth from Garden Spot Village.

The best part of being a senior seems to be the social interaction. We have said that retirement communities are reminiscent of college campuses; just as college is a unique time when you are living with friends and peers 24/7 and the focus is as social as academic, so older adult living allows a unique time of life to again focus on the social aspects. Family events are very special and important to everyone, and favorite memories seem to come from previous stages of life. These interviews are serving to deconstruct some senior stereotypes.

And I cried for what seems like the fiftieth time today. Not with sadness but with relief and appreciation for the fact that all the things that give us happiness and sadness, excite us and bore us, frustrate us and thrill us don’t simply fade once we hit sixty or seventy or eighty. Life is full to the end.

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