"April" #01

"[Medical professionals] baby talk us older folks. I've noticed in the clinic they will talk to us differently than they do to someone [younger].... I'm not quite sure what that's all about.... But I've always been treated very, very well in clinics, as far as the doctors and the nurses. It's the front desk people.... It's frustrating, but I hardly ever go to the doctor. So, it doesn't affect me that much."

"Beatrice" #32

"I think [policy and healthcare decision-makers] need to listen to what people are saying, really listen. Because sometimes I think that what they do has to do with the money. It has to do with what it's going to benefit them rather than... the older folks.... I think a lot of times older folks are not taken seriously and we're not going to be here that long, much longer. It's a fact of life. So they don't get that involved and that's important. Listen. They need to listen. I don't know that any of this would make a difference as far as the health care, the people that are making these things happen."

"Christine" #01

"Aging never has any money. The Area Agency on Aging where I did most of my stuff at, they've been flat-lined for ten years.... Their employees are rushing out the door because they don't think they'll be there long. They just don't have any money to compete."

"Georgia" #05

"I think people think when you get older, you just dry up, that your life is over, and that is definitely not true for me.... I think seniors have so much that they can give because they have lived a life. They have experiences that could help other people. But sometimes nobody asks them.... We're just like that lost treasure of wealth that can be shared."

"Sandra" #19

She shares her thoughts about stereotypes of aging. "The idea that because you are this age... either you shouldn't be doing or why are you even here participating. I said, excuse me. I still have a lot to say, you know."

"Maya" #11

"It's how you feel about yourself. If you're 65 and you feel like you don't want to do nothing, you get lazy. [And] that's what makes you old when you don't have any activity in your life. If you moan and grown and act like you can't get around, that's your fault. You better keep the same energy you had when you were younger. You better keep the same energy when you're older. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. If you lose it, you'll never get it back. So I keep my mind occupied, I keep myself active. I'm not going to give up."

"Paige" #08

"I've been asked enough. 'What's your secret? What do you do?' I don't think there's any secret except up here [in the mind.] I think a lot of older people, they get to an age, and they think, 'Well, I can't do this, and I can't do that,' and they can."

"Paige" #13

I went to a meeting... and there was a woman, she said, I'm the oldest one here, I'm 84. And I said, no, you're not.... After I told them [my age], when we got up to go have lunch, it's 'watch yourself [Redacted]. Watch that step [Redacted].' You didn't tell me that before. Now you know how old I am, so now I'm going to get all this advice. And that I don't like."

"Yuen" #08

"To be honest, I never thought I would live to be seventy. Because.... my father passed away early, and I have a childhood trauma from when my father died after surgery. So I'm very afraid of surgery. When surgery is mentioned, I will never accept it. I have a feeling that as long as I don't have to undergo surgery, it's fine. That's how I feel. As for other things, I don't think they matter much. Getting old is just a process. I don't really like it when elderly people around me always say, 'Oh, I'm useless now.' I think, how can a person be defined as useful or useless? You already have contributed to society, you're already useful, right? Everyone goes through this stage, even presidents get old, right? So I don't think it's a big deal. I think aging is very normal. It's just that many of us don't face it."

"Bonita" #11

She is 78 years old but feels like she's 15 because of her desire to live. "I feel like I'm 25.... Oh! the desire to live, right? I should feel like I'm 15, no, 25."

"Gabriela" #03

"Well, I am 68 years old.... [but] I feel like I'm 30. Yes, because I am very, like, very active, you know? I don't like to be... Like sitting all the time, I like to be in motion.... Even the doctors have told me that, they ask if I don't feel tired, if... They always ask if I feel tired. I tell them, 'I don't feel tired.'... 68 years old for me is nothing. Live life until wherever God says, and that's it.... Until God says no more, but as long as I can, well, I keep going.... To me, it's like I'm not 68 because I don't give it much thought. Now, if I gave it much thought, then you see? But I don't give much thought to the fact that I'm... I could turn 70, 80. I don't give much thought to my age because if you dwell on it... People say, 'Oh, I'm old!' No. You don't have to always be thinking that. As long as illness doesn't bring you down. So, there you go."

"Lena" #08

She is 69 years old but feels younger. "I feel about 40.... Cause I think I eat healthy. I'm physically active. I go to church. I try and keep a positive mental attitude.... A couple of years ago, I still felt great. But every time I looked in the mirror, I felt old.... I had already retired but I would go back to the classroom and substitute [and] one little kid called me grandma one day and I'm probably older than his grandma, but that was like a knife in my heart. I was like, okay I'm gonna start coloring my hair again. So when I look in the mirror, I don't feel like I look like I'm 68 and I don't feel like I am."

"Maya" #05

"Age is just a number. You either feel old or you gonna be old. So, I don't feel old. I feel like I'm just as young as you. You know what I'm saying? I don't feel old. Ain't nothing on me old about nothing. I get around just like the young girls do.... I feel like I'm about 25. I don't feel 55.... Because I can do whatever I used to do back then when I was 25.... I can still enjoy my life more when I was 25. I used to party a lot. I don't party like I used to no more. But I party occasionally when I want to go out and have a good time. I like to go out dancing. So when I go out, I feel like a 25-year-old woman when I'm out there dancing. I don't feel like I'm 65 out there dancing. Because they drop it hot. I drop it hot too!"

"Arthur" #06

"When I realized I was gay, when I was in my early 20s, and I didn't think that society was gonna let me live to be 40, so I thought, 'what the fuck', you know, I'll just enjoy myself and, you know, I partied, I smoked too much, I drank too much. But lo and behold, I lived to 40, and then I lived to 60."

"Beatrice" #02

"How did it happen so fast? It seemed like were just young. I mean, in my head, I think I'm about 17 or 18. I look in the mirror, and I know I'm not. So you just feel like, where did it all go? And all of a sudden we're old. I mean, we're old. But I'm not the only one that feels that way. A lot of us have felt that way. It just came on so fast."

"Georgia" #20

"Uh, like I said, sometimes it's a little I don't know if I want to say a little scary. Sometimes it's just like Wow, because life seems to be passing so quick. The years are passing along quickly. And I was thinking about when I was younger, I never in a million years would have thought I would be 71 years old. No, I mean, that was just something my sister and I were talking and my sister is 77. My brother will be 80, um, next week. And these ages were like never on our radar. Just like, wow, 70, I'm like, I'm in my 70s. It still surprises me because it's just, I never thought I'd be, be here at this age. I don't know. I never thought about it. I never really, you know, when you're younger, you never see yourself getting. When you're younger, I mean, 50 was like ancient. So when you, as the years go by and you find yourself getting older, and then you, and one day you wake up and you're 70, You're just like, wow. Like, I am really old! It's like, you have more years behind you than you do in front of you. And you just wonder, like, really, how much time do you actually have left here on this earth? And then what are you going, what are you going to do with that time that you do have left? Because nobody really knows."

"Darcy" #13

"I'm trying to think what I was doing at 43.... You're too busy being my mom to think about what your age is, what you're going to be like later. When you have kids, you're not thinking that far in the future. That would probably be a good thing to tell yourself. Prepare yourself for... when you're older. I mean, right now everything's beautiful. You know, it's great. No problems. Think about it, it's not always going to be that way. You know, things do change.... [Preparing myself for] retirement would have been very wise. But, [I] didn't, and I was in a small business. The practice, they didn't give retirement. Didn't have to. Small enough practice didn't have to do that. So, that was kind of wise. Playing catch-up on that. Would have been wise to know that ahead of time to kind of prepare for that. That would have been good."

"Eleanor" #09

"I'll be 67 the day after Christmas. I'm 66 right now.... [But I feel] 90. Oh, I laugh. These ladies in this church... they call me the youngster, and they're all in their late 70s, early 80s. And what they can do in a day just amazes me. We had a funeral this past Saturday, and we were there from 12 to 7:30. I was exhausted when I got home, and they were still chugging around when I left, so you know, they truly amaze me. I think a lot of this is, I work so hard so many years, and once I [stopped] like I said, you lose it. I try to do as much as I can, but my bones are shot, my joints are shot, my back is shot. I used to carry 100-pound calves from one side of the farm to the other side, you know. I just did stupid things. Carried five-gallon buckets of milk and five-gallon buckets of grain, things I shouldn't have done to my body. And I did it for 30, 35 years, so it's just the wear and tear."

"Kwan" #02

"I feel that now, seniors live somewhat day by day.... Once you reach the age of 65 and older, if you retire, you feel very lost and confused."

"Genevieve" #17

"When you retire, if you're not still working a part-time job, you kinda wonder what [your sense of purpose] is. Like, why am I here? Like, what am I supposed to be doing?... Once you retire, you get to pick and choose what you wanna do with your day. But you gotta have a sense of purpose. If you don't, you give up."

"Kwan" #05

"[My thoughts on my current age] is quite a helpless one. Because it felt like the pandemic forced me to retire. Sometimes I feel a bit uncomfortable about it, but also feel l have to settle for it. When you [retire], it feels like you have no choice in your life. [Coming to the senior center] seems helpless, but necessary. You have to do it, otherwise, where will you go during the second half of your life?"

"Mark" #07

He has worked since he was 14 and is still looking for part-time work. He feels that your profession is important to your identity. "You know, that gives you purpose.... I was an investment banker. I think a lot of people looked up to me for my name. When I'd go to some of these school board meetings and even to the municipalities and make pitches to do their financing, they thought I had this crystal ball and do everything.... The profession I think it means a lot."

"Sophia" #04

"[My favorite part about getting older is] not having to go to work. And [least favorite] would be once you retire for awhile and get older, you want to get up and do something, you get tired of being home and having nothing to do."

"Aimee" #01

"As I saw myself growing older, I saw myself as dying, and then I had to ask myself, do I want to die miserable? And I had decided then that no, I'm going to come out and start living my life authentically. So that saved my life. Coming out. I have experienced a level of self-love that, I would say, some people would consider like a spiritual event in their life. I know it was an uplifting part of my life. I found out what it means to carry joy within yourself and to be able to express honestly that kind of joy among other people and do it freely."

"April" #17

"[If I could wave a magic wand to change one thing about aging, it would be having] a strong social network or financial help when you need it.... I don't like the idea of the government just handing... money over but if we were taught how to do investing at an early age, like in school... we wouldn't be so stuck like all of us here. We're all losers. There are no winners in [subsidized housing] and there are thousands of these places across the country. If we were taught at an early age how to save our money, how to invest it, to prepare, and not think of ourselves as invincible, you know?"

"Bob" #06

He says the system can make him feel more purposeful as he ages. When he first got involved with Age Friendly, he was more of a listener. Now, he makes statements and proposes ideas. He knows the town now has several construction and beautification projects. They plan to build a walking park, and he made several comments and suggestions. "They want to make... a park and have a greenery on the side of the buildings. And, I've made a couple of comments. They just tore down the gazebo. And I commented to them.... I says, why don't you go to council with this proposal to do another gazebo? So, we'll see how it develops."

"Bob" #07

He was part of a workshop that came to his senior building to teach people about computer skills. "What can you do to help, you know, better yourself too? One of the things that through one of our workshops downstairs, we commented about [how] we're not tech-savvy, we're not computer savvy, we're not cell phone savvy like these young ones are today [laughs]. Through some discussion and some planning through Age Friendly, we finally [got the workshops]. And I don't care what our coordinator says. It wasn't through her, it was through my discussion with the Age Friendly individuals. Let's get, you know, a Chromebook computer class started, so we can get beginners… Someone that… totally beginners. Okay, so we finally got that."

"Eleanor" #01

"And they say 4H kids, FFA kids are the best. Because they want to get the farm. A lot of these kids can't get the farm experience anymore that they want to. People don't live on farms anymore. They live in town. They don't have the land. So, even my neighbors, they're using my barn for their FFA animals. And I'd love to be able to do that, open that up for the kids that can't keep animals on their own. You know, be able to keep them at my place. They still are responsible for them. They still have to come out every day and feed them. I'll feed them in the mornings because they've got school. But weekends and weeknights, it's their responsibility, but I'd love to be able to open up a farm for that. That's kind of a sense of purpose for me, to be able to help with that. But it's also mine. I love having animals around."

"Genevieve" #16

"When I was 28, I hate to say it. I was already planning [for end-of-life]. I had already bought my plot for where it was going to be buried. And I was already... saving for retirement. I was saving money then. I was old when I was young, though. I was raised around older people, so I thought old. Now that I'm older, I can sit back and relax and enjoy my time a little bit."

"Harriet" #07

"You know, you hear some people say if I need to get 100, I want to live no longer. I said I will stay long if God let me and just keep on doing what I feel like that's required of me. I really do. The thing that I do to help the seniors and give them something to look forward to... I feel like it's required of me. For some unknown reason, I do.... I be saying, Lord, I'm so tired. But I must go on."

"Rita" #07

"I think if you are going to retire... if you can do something that gets back to the community or gets back to somebody, it will help you a lot more than just that.... I mean, I love reading. My whole family loves reading books. So if you'd like to read, then why not volunteer at the library and read to kids?... One of the things I tried doing was volunteering at the food bank. Because I went over there to ask how do you volunteer but their schedule [conflicted] with my schedule to Zumba.... My workout comes first because I need to get back into shape.... So, [volunteering with the food bank] just didn't quite fit into my [schedule, but I do] send money to... the backpack program. Because it's like, I don't want kids to be hungry. So they send them backpacks on the weekends with food from the school... So something like that. Something that they give back.... [My friend's] passion was elderlies. So if you can volunteer with the elderlies, and go play bingo, go play lottery, or go play loteria, which is the Mexican lottery game. Go sit with somebody and listen to their stories, because they got a lot of good stories to tell. They got history. Those are things."