When Thinking About Aging With health care advancing so rapidly in the United States, there are new ways to treat virtually any type of disease every day. With the possibility of treating diseases in new ways, and also with the advancement of medical equipment, the possibility increases that many more people will reach the age of 90, and perhaps even reach 100. The aging of the population, which continues to grow every so quickly, it will use many more sources as the years go by. This means we need to train more doctors and nurses, etc., and also create more housing facilities for the elderly. The question that comes to mind is when is actually “old”. Most people stereotypically consider 75 or older to be old, but that doesn't mean they're actually “old,” does it? In my opinion I don't consider 75 to be old. In fact, I don't think that every age is "old". In fact I don't think there should be an average age limit in today's society. So instead of age what do you use to determine if someone is old? I think people's health should reflect their “age” or how old they are. For example, to understand someone's health, you can ask questions like: are they still active, do they eat healthily, and are their cognitive abilities still active? Only when people begin to move away from these requirements, and begin to have deteriorated health, or to define themselves as old, I think then we can say that they are old. But if they don't meet these criteria, then they aren't old. If you think about it, society is already starting to move away from the term “old.” Instead, people call 90 year olds young 90 year olds. Even on talk shows and just talking to people in general, we see/hear about 90-year-olds doing yoga, running a business, or doing... middle of paper... long-term care and nursing homes are great places to seniors who have no family or who need extra care, such as rehabilitation for a broken bone or other illness. I think they're fine for a reasonable amount of time, but I don't think people should die there. In some cases, yes, the elderly person is very ill, has no family, or does not have enough family members to take care of him, and needs to stay in the nursing home and sometimes dies there, but this doesn't work means they should . Unfortunately sometimes, it's the end of some people's lives and that's scary to think about because who wants to die in a hospital, or a "hospital-like" environment? So in conclusion, in this course I look forward to learning all about gerontology, how older adults function and how they feel when they find themselves in the situations listed above.