Friday, January 21, 2011

Quick Blog #6: Age Diversity


1.       In my social sphere I am definitely comprised of people of diverse ages.  I regularly encounter young people and elders.  I currently am a Licensed Nurse Assistant at an Assisted Living Facility in Dover, NH.  I spend most of my days working with the elderly and taking care of them.  We help them with almost all their daily activities.  There are times I love my job and there are times I hate it but I definitely care a lot about the elderly and everything they’ve accomplished in their lives.  I also encounter a few younger people in my social sphere.  My youngest brother is eleven and he always has friends over.  It’s interesting to see the way they interact with each other because I’m sure I did the same things with my friends when we were that age. 
2.       I definitely think in some ways our society is segregated on the basis of age.  I think this is because of how we look at different age categories and what is expected of each of them.  Young children are expected to go to school, play sports, play an instrument, have a lot of friends, and basically have fun while learning basic survival strategies and so on. I guess young adults and middle-age adults who are either finishing college or trying to find a job to support them throughout their lives do have a little more time to do things.  For example, I am able to go to a four year college, work part time, and be able to have social interactions with my friends a good amount of the time.  I’ve even been able to fit in other activities such as concerts, movies, and so on.  My parents on the other hand are raising my younger brother and working full time.  They don’t have as much time as I do to be involved in outside activities from their daily lives.  So I guess in a way I am privileged at this time in my life.
3.       Working with the elderly every day I personally have gained a large amount of respect for them.  I learned about the hardships some of them have experienced and how much they accomplished in their lives.  Obviously they grew up in a different generation and didn’t have as much technology as we did.  I think today a lot of people take advantage of that and forget what our elders really had to go through, and with that they lose some respect for them.  These are our elders, our family, and one day that will be us.  I think it’s very important to respect them and maybe people should begin to integrate some form of the elderly into their everyday lives.  I also think it’s time that all ages receive respect for each other too.  We all have gone through these ages and have experienced them at one time.  So let’s give the respect that we were or wished we were give at those ages. 

No comments:

Post a Comment