Language

I would like to eliminate three words from our vocabulary forever; senior, retirement and reinvention.

I was not happy to see an insert in this weekend’s Sunday paper entitled ‘Living 50 Plus – A Guide for Healthy Senior Living. Are you kidding me! According to Jack Rosenthal, former editor of the New York Times, language has not yet caught up with life. So true.

What was considered senior in the last century does not have the same implication today. People over 50 can change the conversation.  Yes it is nice to get discounts once you are over a ‘certain’ age but that should not imply anything other than you are getting a discount. The same way, a certain affiliation i.e., corporate, association, membership entitles the same.

The other word ‘retirement’ also means something to many that no longer applies. Whether due to economic landscape or personal/professional choice, people are not done contributing.

The new reality is that our strength is more than our youth. Our prime working years can go on and on, if we chose. We need to take advantage, leverage our collective experiences and forge new paths for ourselves and our sisters.

Lastly the word reinvention gets me as well. To me, it implies that all of your experiences to date do not have relevance and that you need to go in a totally new direction. Not true. I prefer the words, personal refresh, renew, reboot or renaissance. You look at all of your experiences, remind yourself of your childhood fascinations, consider your current situation, and then combine it all in a way that resonates with your true self.

Remember we are not done yet.