Essay Sample: Imagining Your Life at Age 85

At 85 years old, two primary issues are affecting my life. First, my spouse died a few years ago after succumbing to a lengthy disease. Additionally, my mobility has become remarkably restricted because of a deteriorating degenerative joint disease. However, to cope up with the two problems on a day-to-day basis, I stay up with my granddaughter who keeps me company and ensures that I am not depressed due to loneliness.

Moreover, her company helps me to manage my bitterness because of losing my wife. Also, a few months ago, my eldest son purchased for me a power wheelchair. Since then, the wheelchair has helped me to move around the house on my own. Furthermore, because of the convenience of the wheelchair, I able to execute simple basic household chores with minimal assistance from other persons. Nevertheless, I require another persons assistance in executing some of my basic needs in the house.

In this case, my granddaughter helps me in going to the bathroom as well as in washing my back. Also, since I am above 65 years of age, I qualify for Medicare provisions from the government. Additionally, through Medicare assistance for the elderly, I am able to acquire appropriate drugs to treat my health condition. However, I feel that I lack an appropriate social interaction with my peers or persons who are around my age.

This occurrence is because most persons who are of my age are either deceased or admitted into senior centers. As such, I lack sufficient and regular social interaction with other persons who are approximately my age. Nevertheless, I thrive in learning and spreading the Bible s teachings to others. Additionally, my strong religious belief has enabled me to manage my psychological health and to understand and accept the bad things that have happened to me.

Furthermore, my strong religious beliefs have enabled to do well in the face of lifes inevitable challenges. This is because I have managed to adopt religious and holistic interventions that can help in improving my psychological health condition. Additionally, I have managed to maintain a healthy diet, by ensuring that I consume different meals that make up a balanced diet. Additionally, I also ensure that I visit my dietician regularly in order to improve the quality of meals that I consume.

Also, according to Tornstan (2011), the term gerotranscendence characterizes the individual process of securing maturity as well as wisdom, which also accompanied by a high level of satisfaction in life (Tornstan, 2011; Kolb, 2014). Additionally, Tornstan (2011) theorizes that gerotranscendence can be considered to be a transformation through attaining new ways of understanding life, taking different activities and viewing oneself.

In respect to these descriptions by Tornstan (2011), I believe that I have attained the aspect of gerotranscendence in my life. This is because past experiences in my life have taught me how to view different phenomena that influence my life different ways. As such, I have attained the ability to adjust easily to different situations that occur in my life by taking different positive strategies to manage such occurrences.

Nevertheless, gerotranscendence is different from ego integrity. According to Erik Erikson, ego integrity characterizes a sense of respect to the attainment of a reliable realization of self and others (Rathus, 2012; Stevens, 2008). That is also with respect to a persons understanding of how such constructs interact with an individuals experiences to reality and the synthetic aspects of individual ego. Personally, I believe that I have attained ego integrity.

I have a strong respect for myself based on my intelligence I have gathered throughout my life. I also understand that a human beings life is limited and it occurs at a certain time in history. As such, I have secured much wisdom, in dealing with my end-of-life challenges and situations. That is in respect to how I respond to different situations and how I interact with other people.

References

Kolb, P. (2014). Understanding Aging and Diversity: Theories and Concepts. New York: Routledge.

Rathus, S. A. (2012). Discovery Series: Introduction to Lifespan. New York: Cengage Learning.

Stevens, R. (2008). Erik H. Erikson: Explorer of Identity and the Life Cycle. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Tornstam, L. (2011). Introduction Into gerotranscendence. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 43(2), 160-188.