When I am 100 Years Old by Gabe (Age 6)

My 6 year old son recently celebrated 100 years of school in his Kindergarten class.  They were allowed to dress up like 100 year old people, and they were asked to bring in 100 items for counting and math practice (he chose cotton balls).  He was so excited to show me the paper he worked on, outlining all the things he will do when he is 100 years old.  In addition to having “gray hair”, a “beard” and a “mustache” (a very hairy 100 year old if you ask me) I was more disturbed with these 3 sentences:

I will crash my car.

I will fall.

I will have  a cane.

Ummmmmm, this does not paint a pretty picture now does it?!  I thought about my own generalizations regarding the elderly and wondered how many of my own pre-conceived notions were responsible for the way my son perceived a 100 year old person.  

As I do with many things in my life, I decided to start at the end and work my way backwards.  How do I picture my 100 year old self (or heck, my 80 year old self)? 

Here’s some descriptors I came up with:

Active

Walking without an assistive device.

Driving (and able to rotate my neck in order to look behind me–take that you back-up cameras)

Having sex

Having fun and seeking wonder

Trying new things

Happy 🙂

So now that I have set the standard, it’s time to get busy making my vision come true.  For me that means continuing to move in little and big ways, every day!  

What does your 100 year old self look like?