When it comes to different people and different circumstances, healthy aging does not always look the same. Healthy aging can look vastly different with each person that you see. For some healthy aging means more if the person involved maintains their strong mental state. For these people they place having a strong mind over having a strong body. It means more to them to be able to be capable of thinking, processing, and be able to have strong understanding of the world around them. For others, they value the physical aspect more. These people believe that it is much more beneficially have good physical health, they value staying fit and believe keeping in shape is the most important thing. The meaning of healthy aging truly depends on the way the person views it. Personally, I believe healthy aging is having a combination of both physical and mental strength. It is important to be both physically active and mentally active as well, it is natural for both to slow decline as you age but it is also important that you work to keep the processes from accelerating. Healthy aging is more than just walking, running, and staying physically active. It is being able to do the things you enjoy as well as enjoying the time that you spend with the people that you love. For me this is the most important. Being able to spend time with the people I love, at an older age, and still enjoy it is what is most important. At the end of the day healthy aging means different things to everyone, but the things that will not change is having a healthy mind and body. Having a good mindset as well as a strong outlook on life can change everything. It is up to you to be healthy and as long as you can continue to do the things you love and be around the people you love, I think you are off to a pretty good head start.

Sierra Gray

This is one of the hardest things I have ever had to write because I haven’t the slightest clue. As of right now, I find it already tough grappling to figure out who I am and what I want. I look to the future and see a myriad of possibilities. These range from a volunteer working with the Peace Corps overseas, to a big city cop, to a school counselor. Where I will land, who knows? The only thing I anticipate happening is the absence of having children. Mainly, I see what’s ahead as a swirling veil of fog filled with premonitions. However, I am choosing to be optimistic and to view the future as an adventure. And I know for sure that I will continue to seek meaning in whatever I do.

I am currently 19 years old. In 10 years I will be 29. For me this length of time seems like forever. 10 years before (9) felt like a distant memory. So much has happened and I have changed so much. It can be difficult to look into the future and try to guess, but I feel I have a general idea of who I will be. When I am 29 years old I will be a Nurse Practitioner. I will work as a family practitioner and be comfortable and confident in my line of work. People will know to come to me for the best care emotionally, physically, and mentally. I will show I truly care for each patient and continue to learn more on how to be better at my job. For my family, I would like to guess I would be married at this time. I will have worked out a schedule to spend time with my family and grow super close with them. I will have shown my children that I would support them no matter what. One thing I battle with is myself. Thankfully my immediate family was kind and supportive, but my grandparents were super negative against us, particularly me of my two sisters. My grandfather beat my mother when she was younger and verbally abused me when I was younger. It got so bad we separated from them and no longer see them. I can still hear his voice in my head, breaking me down, even though he’s not there. I am constantly battling and trying to make my mind less hostile against me. I feel I have to do everything right and perfect, because if I don’t, then he was right. From our chapter I can related to the “emotional regulation”. I am slowly finding ways to combat this and I will only get better at it as time goes on. 10 years later I hope to have mastered it and now have the ability to teach others on how to do the same. From our chapter I showed “resilience” in how I kept pressing forward even at a young age. Mentally I feel I have been in a non-stop battle from the day I was born. I am sad I had a rotten grandparent who hurt my whole family, but I decided to get better instead of bitter from it. I am such a better person from it as well. I have immense understanding for those in pain and can see someone hurting when no one else can. It’s like I’ve been given a gift for it. When I am 10 years older, I hope to be the strongest version of myself and continue to conquer my crazy mind and strive for greatness.

Age and generational discrimination are common in today society. Although discrimination is illegal, many people tend to still do It even without noticing that they are discriminating. Age discrimination is towards all age groups. I feel that stereotypes is one factor that contributes to age discrimination. Many people create certain stereotypes about one’s age, and sometimes its hard to change that stereotype because your constantly reminded of what you are “known as”. For example, many people call younger teens and kids lazy and are inclined to social media. However, this may be common in young teenagers, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that every teenager is lazy and is always on social media. Growing up, me and my friends always kept a job and would participate in community service events. But because people are so conformed to their own beliefs, it’s hard for them to change that belief and view of others. I also feel that the media is a big factor that contributes to age discrimination. The media portrays images that tells you what you should look like, which many people look up to because their role models are influencing this behavior. For example: There’s celebrities that does commercials about anti-aging cream or makeup convincing people who are older and have wrinkles to buy these products to make them look “beautiful” and young. This then causes women in society to feel that if your old and have wrinkles then you’re not “beautiful”. Also, Television and movies are a big factor of age discrimination because movies and tv shows tend to show many stereotypes towards people ages, which causes society to conform to that because that’s all they been shown/ taught. For example: Many movies show grandparents living in a nursing and being depressed, or unable to live their life because of their age or if they have diseases. This causes society to believe that this is what happens to all people of old age. I feel that in order to reduce age discrimination society should eliminate the media that shows discrimination towards a certain age or generation. The media seems to become comfortable with making jokes about certain generations, which makes society think it’s okay. So, I feel that eliminating movies and tv shows like this could help reduce age discrimination. Another factor that could reduce age discrimination is allowing older workers to be able work in the same workplace and have the same workload as younger people. I feel that this is a big problem in society. Becoming more acceptable to everyone regardless their age can help and prove to others that no matter your age, you can do anything.

It is very easy to judge someone based on looks or on a particular stereotype they exhibit. For example, a young teen is typically seen as a poor and lazy worker. This idea not only affects the teens chance at getting that job but it also effects them mentally. As a teen worker myself I work in a tough workplace. I am surrounded by great coworkers but I work at a hospital. Working at a hospital is very serious and much is expected of you. I felt I had to work even harder than normal to prove to the other workers and my boss that I was worthy of working in a hospital. I don’t think they thought of me as unworthy of working there, but there was still that idea in the back of their minds. The point is, I felt I had to work harder than ever so that I would not be put in that stereotype. This type of thought sets teens at a disadvantage compared to an adult applying for a job. This also goes for the elderly. The elderly are automatically put in the stereotype that they can’t work as hard as others because they are old and weak. Some elderly in the work place have even been coaxed into retiring. Judging should be done based on the individual’s actions and attitude rather than automatically putting that person in a certain category. If someone shows actions of being a lazy worker and prove to be one then you can judge them as a lazy worker. Same goes for the elderly, but there has to at least be a chance for them beforehand. If I am ever in a situation where I am in authority of hiring someone, then I will have to remind myself of this. As I mentioned before, pre-judging someone is so easy to do. Let’s all give everyone a chance and look more at the individual. I hope this change will help both the young and the old realize they don’t have to overwork themselves to get out of a stereotype.

Age discrimination is very common in our society. It is common at all age groups; most people only think it happens to older adults but that is not the case. I think there are a lot of things that contributes to age and generational discrimination. One thing that I think contributes to age and generational discrimination is culture. Different cultures have different views on ages. For example, some Asian cultures see their older adults as people of great wisdom. It is also very abnormal of people from these cultures to have someone other than their family taking care of them as they get older. In western culture it is more common for older adults to be in nursing homes. Another thing that I think contributes to age and generational discrimination is stereotypes. I think stereotypes are started by one person having an experience, good or bad, with a person in a certain age group and then applies them to all the people in the same age group as the person they had that experience with. Another contribution to age and generational discrimination is that a lot of people are more reluctant to accept things that are different than them, so when someone comes a long and is different than them, they are less likely to be more accepting. There are some things that I think can reduce age and generational discrimination. One thing that can reduce age and generational discrimination is to make sure people do not apply one experience they had to every person in that age group; help people know that everyone is their own person and not everyone in an age group is the same. Another thing that could reduce age and generational discrimination is people trying to be more accepting of each other because we are all different and that should be okay.

Age discrimination is an unfortunate part of life in the United States. There are many parts of our culture that contribute to ageist views. One part is our emphasis on youth and beauty. America has extremely high beauty standards, that places significance on being young and vibrant. One way this is prominent is through the variety of wrinkle creams offered. There are hundreds of types of creams that claim to help you reduce or completely get rid of wrinkles. While wrinkles pose no health risks, and are a common part of aging, we still have an aversion to them. We think wrinkles make us look old and being old doesn’t align with our beauty standards. 

Additionally, Americans associate getting older with cognitive and physical deficiencies. While this may be true for some older adults, it is not true for everyone. However, on many television shows and movies we see older adults portrayed as frail, forgetful people who need to be taken care of like kids. The help older adults may need varies greatly and while some may need a significant amount of help, the others who are functioning the same as all adults are not represented, and so people don’t associate that level of functioning with older adults. 

            I believe that we can do a number of things to reduce age discrimination in our society. For one, we can make sure that a range of ability levels in older adults are represented in the media. This would help break the stereotype that is associated with older adults. People would be more likely to recognize that there is a range of ability in older adult, as there is in any age group. They would be more likely to judge the person based on their specific set of abilities, rather than assuming what they are capable of. We can also hold each other accountable to reducing ageist views. For example, if someone says it’s “okay” that someone has passed away because they “lived a good life”, we can remind them that it is sad when anyone of any age dies, because a human life has been lost.

Age and generational discrimination are common in our society. People are instantly judged by their age and whatever generation they are a part of. People should not think older people are slow and less capable than younger people. People should not think that younger people are inexperienced or immature. However, people do believe these things. Age discrimination is alive and kicking every day. It is a big issue in the workplace.

Older people are denied employment to certain businesses because they are assumed to be slow on the job and not be able to keep up with the workload. They should give people chances and see what they can do before judging them right off the bat and denying them a job. On the other hand, younger people in the workplace are assumed to be inexperienced and could be denied a job because of it and give it to a more “mature” worker. Whichever the circumstance, people should not be judged because of their age or what generation they are in. People should be given a chance to show their life experience and prove that they can work hard to earn a living.

I hope if you are ever in a position to provide people jobs you give each person an equal chance. You see what they have to bring to the table and explain themselves before asking them their age and judging them based solely on that. I hope that when you are behind someone driving slow on the road that you do not just assume it is an elderly person. I hope that you give young people more chances to prove themselves and grow. I hope that we as a society can let go of the assumptions and stereotypes that people of different ages and generations are thought of as being. Keep an open mind and disregard the stigmas.

Age and generational discrimination are problems in our society. There are a lot of stereotypes associated with older adults. There’s common stereotypes that we spread about older adults not being able to drive “proper” or fast, there’s also a lot of age-based discrimination in the work-place, some older adults are treated horrible and might be discriminated against in nursing homes or hospitals. 

I think that a lot of things contribute to generational/age discrimination and the spreading of these stereotypes. I think the biggest thing right now that contributes to this discrimination is social media platforms. It’s very easy to spread stereotypes over Facebook or Twitter that some might believe is harmless. We learn stereotypes from others. As a society, we can look at trends or norms that would influence how we see people.  If we pay attention to what others are spewing on the internet or listen to what our friends/family have to say about a certain subject we can become bias and conform to their beliefs, this is typically how societies work together to spread stereotypes and prejudice which lead to any kind of discrimination.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that discrimination will ever completely cease. However, I do believe that we can reduce its prevalence by doing individual research or education. I can say personally that I’ve learned a lot about healthy aging through research. By educating myself in this subject, I have been able to eliminate some beliefs that I had before about aging. I believe that if we all educate ourselves a little more on society patterns and the ideas of healthy aging, we can stop some of the spread of stereotypes and it can slow down forms of discrimination. I believe that one other thing we can do is to just be cautious on social media. Not everything on Facebook or Twitter is factual and it definitely CAN be harmful to people. 

Age and generational discrimination are becoming more and more common today in society. It is common in society for younger people to accuse and assume things of the older generation strictly because of their age. For example, a younger person may assume that someone who driving slow is an older person just because of the speed that they are driving. Another example could be someone of an older generation getting turned down for a job because the bosses feel as though they would not be able to complete the needed tasks as well as someone younger. For the other way around, it is also common for people of the older generation to accuse and assume things of the younger generation because of their age. For example, someone of the older generation may say that a younger person is not quite experienced enough in life to be able to do certain things or know certain things.

One of the most common places that age and generational discrimination takes place is within the workplace. There are some workplaces that will not interview or hire certain people because they are either too young or too old. Also, there are some employers that may assume that younger employees are more able to work quickly and more efficiently compared to older people just based off of the stereotypes that older people are slower.  

I think that overall these concepts of age and generational discrimination have developed because people are quick to judge based off of stereotypes that they have heard throughout generations. People fail to realize that every generation, and most people in general, are raised differently. I think if people continue to follow these stereotypes that have been developed by society then there will always be a type of competition between different generations. I think that the best way that we can improve this issue is to continue to have people to ignore the stigmas and for people to accept people for more than just their age. This will hopefully allow people to start to see each other as more than a generation or a number.