What kind of older person do you hope to be?
I guess this question is for anyone who does not consider him/herself an older person. I don’t really mean “what do you want to be when you grow up.” You can, of course, include that in your answer. I mean more, do you want to be a youthful grandparent hip to all the trends, or a wise old sage, or the scary loner that the neighborhood kids dare each other to touch your front door, etc?
I think I’d like to be a combination of things… healthy being first, then wise, then financially successful, respected and slightly fashionable, but with my own eccentricities.
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wiser, financially stable, and preferably in possession of all my teeth. Though that scary loner the neighborhood kids dar each other about does have a certain appeal…
I hope I am the kind that will still hold my partners hand while walking down the street, I love to see older coulpes holding hands.
Well, the youthful grandparent thing is pretty much shot, unless my kids become teenage parents. And hip to all the trends was off the table from my birth. I just hope to be happy and to remain mentally sharp. I’ll take wise, healthy, not completely broke, and all the rest too, but I don’t want to be too greedy.
I pick: A youthful grandparent hip to all the trends.
The person I have always wanted to be.
Well, just what I am right now. My husband of 42 years will still hold hands & kiss me in public. Our two daughters call ME when they want to go on a shopping trip. Our 3 grandkids like to be with me & they come here often. I have tons of friends, I love a good party, I have all the material things I could ever want, we have financial security…I’m living right now what I want when I “get older”. Life is good.
Is age 66 considered an “older person”? i think so. i have reached a good point in my life. i have made many of the accomplishments in life, that were goals for me. i left my mark in the city in which i live. i named the new police department buiding. each time i ride by it, i feel proud. i planned for my retirement and its working just as planned. still married to the girl i fell in love with back in 1965. we have two intelligent, beautiful children that are successful. we just paid the last of our home mortgage and are out of debt. we have vacationed in Italy, Mexico, Jamaica and Canada. and, the best part of all, i now can sleep late every morning. after 44 years of waking up at 430 am, i think i deserve to catch up on some of my lost zzzzzz’s. we both still have good health and are very active in our retired lives. we have been blessed and we know it. if you look really close, you might catch us sneaking a kiss out in public.
I want to be a fun old person. Not the kind that gets mad for eveything, one that pretends to be asleep just so I could scare people. I would love to be an old woman that can use a skateboard.
@john65pennington If your retirement plan is working in this economy, you did something right. ; )
I’d be happy to be a Helen Mirren/Tina Turner older woman. Elegant, but not too stuffy, still able to use my body and have a wide range of motion. Still mentally sharp and creative. And definitely not one of those “Well, back in my day… GET OFF MY LAWN!” types.
I don’t hope because I know I will. That’s to stay young at heart & to retain my humour no matter what age I am. Laughter coupled with an enthusiastic nature will keep this man young forever.
An alive one. Preferably not thinking about suicide so much. But alive is good enough.
I want to be happy and loved. I’m almost old, I am both happy and loved. Now all I need is a grey bun on the back of my head, an apron tied around my waist and a rocker.
One that likes novel experiences.
The kind that still grabs her husband’s ass in the grocery store.
The kind that is happy, healthy, and doesn’t care what other people think!
@daloon I hope you’re alive, too! :o)
I only have 3 goals for my later years…
1) I have a cane
2) I have a front lawn
3) I am grumpy at most times
Put these together and what do you get? The weird old guy who shakes his cane at neighbor kids who step on his lawn. That’s who I want to be.
@Facade I also hope my wife is still grabbing my ass in public when I’m old! Just as long as it doesn’t get in the way of my cane shaking!
@drClaw Sounds like the guy in Monster House to me. Good luck with that.
I’m 66. When you get to this age, WHAT you are isn’t nearly as important as that you just ARE! : D
I was going to go with the flip answer “Alive” but after thinking about it, that’s not really true. I want to be alive and have a functioning brain (albeit with possibly diminished capacities) and a body that gets me where I need to go (ditto caveat.) I want to still be interested in people and alive to new possibilities and experiences. And able to read!
Feisty! I have a feeling I am going to love my golden years as long as my health is reasonably well.
I am there and I am content, although I would not have predicted this scenario when I was 20.
If you mean over 65, I doubt if I’ll make it. Depression sucks.
I want to be the fun old lady to whom all the neighborhood teenagers come to vent about their boy problems and eat the baked goods I make.
Actually, this question is the same as asking, “What sort of person do you want to be?” My answer has been, and always will be, “Be the sort of person who is the best sort of person you CAN be.”
Do you mean, even older than I am now? Unfortunately, I have reached a prime number in the progression of age. When I was 52, I could claim to be either four thirteen year-olds or two twenty-six year-olds. Next year I can claim to be nine six year-olds (or six nine year-olds) OR eighteen three year-olds (or three eighteen year-olds). Being 53 leaves me without an escape mechanism. I only hope that when I finally reach the next few prime numbers, that I’ll still want to party and laugh and have fun, pull pranks and live it up as if there were no tomorrow.
@Rufus_T_Firefly
Got you beat by 14 years, bro, and I still strive to be the best sort of person I am capable of being. : )
The kind that isn’t battling MS or Alzheimmer’s, the kind that is not a widow for decades, the kind that never stops reading, the kind that has ideas for grandchildrens’ projects and energy to make love to her husband.
I’d like to maintain my level of tolerance. That’s about it.
A healthy and still-curious one, I hope.
One with many more happy and healthy miles on the clock.
I’m already the older person I never wanted to be
I’d like to be the bizarre old lady who creeps out small children.
@RareDenver If you’re really old (or older) then you can be whatever you want! You can do whatever, and nobody’s going to give you grief because… you’re old! Be wild, be creepy, be elusive! No one can say shit.
I believe I am the older person I always wished I could be: active, engaged, loving and loved, open-minded, curious, a reliable friend, not afraid of technology, in decent health, and not bald.
@Owl Great answer and welcome to Fluther!
Thank you, janbb. I am honored to be in your company.
1. healthy
2. with enough money to do what i want, travel, etc.
@CaptainHarley
I’m 66. When you get to this age, WHAT you are isn’t nearly as important as that you just ARE! : D
Good answer.
In a couple more days I will be 65, my mate is 69 and we are still able to sit up and take nourishment! We both work 7 days a week in our own business. I don’t think I ever want to retire completely, too boring but I will be happy to be scaling down to 4 or 5 days a week working for someone else. I am tired of the buck stopping here! We are active in the community and donate our time and finances freely. Despite the fact I don’t like misbehaving kids on planes, the local ones always want to hang with us. They call me the pied piper because wherever I go, there are always a couple of kids and dogs trailing after me.
I hope to keep it up at least a few years longer.
I want to be the best husband, father, and grandfather I could be. I still have some learning and growing and maturing to do and that is fine with me. I plan to be here for a long time.
I hope I still remember how to wear pants.
I never want to stop moving, or let my body stop doing the things I want it to do.
I want to be surrounded by the love of friends.
I want to be in a job, or jobs, that I love, that I feel like I could do forever. I don’t want my life to be about money… I want to be well off enough to live comfortably, but I want to be happy first.
I want to have seen a lot of the world, and go see even more.
I want to be fluent in many languages.
I want to know where I stand on things in the world, and I don’t want to be afraid of voicing my opinion, LOUD, so that everyone can hear…
I want to feel like I should be where I want to be.
I don’t want to have been doing the same thing for my whole life… I want to get as many experiences as I can, see as much as I can, do as much as I can.
I want to be able to look back, and be proud, and feel satisfied, in what I did, who I was.
I’m nowhere near old yet. But I don’t want to wait until I am old to make some changes. I’m not what I want to be, and I know that; I want to fix it now. So that when I get old, I have no—or, almost no—regrets. My mom tells me about things she wished she had pursued when she was younger. She wonders where her life might have taken her had she just tried some things. So I want to make sure to try things….
@CaptainHarley – Are you suggesting… that I ought to have a REASON to take off my pants? That never stopped me before.
I found that just survival was a noble cause.
~Billy Joel
I’m afraid I have a prior engagement. : ))
Where I live we have no light rail, passenger trains, buses, or taxis.
We do get temperatures in the -20s or colder frequently.
I am in no position to participate!
Uh… what position would THAT be? No, don’t tell me… I don’t need the visual imagry! : D
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