Janaina Pierce Section 4 After I moved in with Sam life started to get more real, it seems that all

the responsibilities that came with living with a partner made me finally fell like a grown up. I started working 2 jobs so that Sam could fully dedicate himself to school, and finally graduate. A couple of years after Sam and I had moved in together Sam had graduated after all and had got himself a job at a college just outside of town. Now it was my turn to go back to school and not have to worry about work for a while. Life went on and by the time I was almost 35 years old I was finally graduating with a degree in Special Education. I got a job at a school nearby and little by little I was starting to feel like my life was becoming what I wanted it to be. I had I partner who I loved and who loved me. I had a job that gave a sense of professional accomplishment, because every day that I went to work I felt that I was somewhat helping to change the life of a person with special needs. Sam and I decided that it was time for us to take the next step as adults and start to add to our little family. We had been together for a long time and we were both happy with our professional carriers, so it seemed fitting to become parents since we had that companionship that we felt was going to last forever. And we were both getting old, so if we didnt start working on making that baby soon, it would end up being too late. Senescence seemed to have begun affecting our bodies, mine more than Sams. I didnt have as much energy and for my demise I was finding more and more gray hairs in my head. (ITTLS chap. 12 pg. 420 Senescence a gradual physical decline that is related to aging and during which the body becomes less strong and efficient). It was a little hard to get pregnant at first, but a few years later we had 3 children under the age of five. Sam and I bought a house in the suburbs and we finally had everything we needed, a home, our family and great jobs that we loved.

Life was full of ups and downs. I had cut down my hours at work since the babies were born, but the kids were all finally going to school, and I found myself sitting at home a lot, with not much to do, and too much time in my hands, I was starting to feel very anxious and rethinking my whole life. Midlife Crisis had just hit me. (ITTLS chap.13 pg. 459 Midlife Crisis a period of unusual anxiety, radical self-reexamination, and sudden transformation, widely associated with middle age, but has more to do with developmental history than with chronological age). Following the teachings of my mother I decided that only I could do something to change the way I felt, so I went to work and asked my boss if could start working more hours, and back I was working full time and keeping myself too busy, without much time to think about silly things. Back home my mom was dealing with a lot of stress because my brother who had just gotten divorced and moved back home, was also abusing alcohol, my grandmother who was on her death bed and my mom was also taking care of her. It is needless to say all that allostatic load took a tool on her and she ended up in the hospital. (ITTLS chap.13 pg. 486 Allostatic Load the combined burden of stress and disease that an individual must cope with). Shortly after my mom got discharged from the hospital, my grandmother passed away, so Sam and I decided it was best for her to come and stay with us for a few months. Years later she was still living with us, as a matter of fact she was living with us when she passed away. That was especially hard on me because most of the time was just me and her, since the kids already had their own families. Even though I was very sad I decided to just go on with my day to day life and I joined a golf team that was made of young old ladies, that helped me stay active, surrounded by friends and in good health. I was determined in not letting secondary aging affect me too much. (ITTLS chap.14 pg.504 Secondary Aging physical illnesses and conditions that become more common with aging but result from poor health habits, genetic vulnerability, and other influences).

Being a grandmother also helped me keep my spirits young. Sam and I had just retired and we decided that neither of us had the personalities to just sit at home and wait to die. We were firm believers of the Activity Theory. So we got volunteers jobs at the shelter in town, and volunteered to watch our grandchildren at least once a week. We believed that being involved grandparents and interacting with people that might need some help would help us keep our minds and bodies active, also giving us some social recognition that we were still useful to society and some sense of accomplishment. (ITTLS chap. 15 pg. 534 Activity Theory the view that elderly people want and need to remain active in a variety of social spheres, with relatives, community, etc). Getting old wasnt easy but the journey there is all that really mattered, I had a wonderful life, with some regrets but most of all full of realizations.