Well after reading this week's topics I can't wait for midlife! In some respects I think I am there. After my diagnosis of Lymphoma I realized my limitations as noted in the article. My educational/career goal was to become an ARNP After my diagnosis I feel that RN is the right place to stop in my education/career goals. This decision was very hard to make but, given that I would like to spend more time with my family it is the right decision for me and my family. The changes in appearance in midlife as discussed in the text are not frightening to me either, in fact, when my skin matches my gray hair I won't have to explain to "every" patient why I look so young with gray hair. By the way, don't ask your nurse how old she is then try to cover the rude/inappropriate question with "Well your skin looks so young, but your hair is white!"
I don't think midlife has to be a crisis and in fact, In the article "Midlife Myths" surveys showed only 10-12% of respondents felt as if they had experienced "midlife crisis". What they often meant was that a crisis took place during midlife such as: divorce, loss of a job, or serious illness. The text states the secret to successfully negotiating midlife seems to be ego resilience, a powerful personality resource that enable people to handle midlife changes. I hope I am one of the lucky participants in life that posses ego resilience!
I look forward to this time in my life. I look forward to seeing that all of the work of raising my children has been fruitful (hopefully). I look forward to new adventures, challenges, and retirement. As I stated earlier I feel like in some aspects I am already moving on to midlife and I hope I am able to experience this time of my life gracefully and enjoy every moment of it, just like the other times in my life! :)
My Auntie B, who is 67, says that she is always surprised to look in the mirror and see a wrinkly face and head full of grey hair because she still feels like she's 22 years old. I guess the cliche of "you're only as old as you feel" can be true, in her case it is anyway. She's always the last person standing. I thought it was funny that you brought up your gray hair. Because I know what you look like from our chemistry class, I have to say that I think your hair is SO BEAUTIFUL and you wear it so well. I can't imagine that anybody would be saying any of that as an insult in any way, folks often just don't have a mouth filter and things can come out wrong.
ReplyDeleteMid- life is one of the interesting times in life. Many physical changes occurs such as gray hair, wrinkles etc. Also person in this period of age becomes free from many responsibilities like raising kids, looking for new jobs, setting up career plans, and education etc. which relieves many stresses.
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