Young Adult Is No Easy Task

Like many people have personally experienced being a adolescent or young adult is no easy task. However, what most people fail to come to terms with is that the elderly suffer from the same hardship. Elderly people must learn to adjust to the profound role changes that they later find themselves. This transition can be extreme difficult for some because it normally revolves around a loss of status, prestige and responsibility. Through my personal interview with Nelda, a recently retired Shelby County schoolteacher of 26 years, who describes firsthand what its like to turn 65 in the modern age. She defines four key personal transitional issue that she and other cohorts must cope with are retirement, the loss of family and friends, decline in heath and their own death (Finn, 2016).

My interview was coordinated with the help of the staff of Millington Public Library. The meeting took place over the course of two days due to scheduling conflict between the interviewee and myself, which allowed the interviewee a chance to peruse the questions in advance. The full interview took place on the November 7, 2016 at Millington Public Library at 4:00 p.m. with a retired schoolteacher who is an avid local volunteer, and traveler in order to determine several questions surrounding growing old such as the what quality of life issue do the elderly face, what is old, young America, use of time, retirement, and the meaningful later life. Nelda was very enthusiast about participating in the interview and was more than willing to volunteer any information starting with her background. She grew up in the Memphis area as part of a nuclear family with one older brother who fought in the Vietnam War inside the DMZ or demilitarized zone. She posses a Ma...

... middle of paper ...

...f being need I think her leisure time provides her with another source of meaning. According to Moody and Sasser (2015, p.32) leisure time activities play an important role in establishing meaning in ones life. Furthermore, there was no signs of disengagement noticed in Nelda, if anything it appeared as if she was trying to drawn herself in actives to avoid the loss of family and loneliness.

In conclusion Nelda appears to be enjoying her retirement and has no regrets about leaving the workforce. She does miss her family but have replaced them cohorts and colleagues. She is very optimistic, but at times can be cynical when she is addressing her own shortcomings. For instance she pronounced herself as “being technology challenge and proud of it” (Finn, 2016). Nonetheless I enjoyed my talk with Nelda and even received some financial advice on investing for retirement.