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What, exactly, do we mean when we use the term "senior citizen"? Do we mean, simply, a person who has lived a long life (over 50? over 60?), or do we mean those who can no longer take care of themselves because of their age, senility, or poor health? When, exactly, does one BECOME a "senior citizen"?

I know-according to the government, at least, a senior citizen is one who is now old enough to begin receiving Social Security. That means that senior citizens now have to be over 62 years of age! But is that really a good watermark of exactly when we can truthfully call a person a senior citizen? And the age is going up, as I understand it, so that in just a few years, no one will be able to claim to be a senior citizen until the age of 70, if the only criteria is when Social Security can begin! So exactly HOW do we decide when a person is truly a "senior citizen"?

When I was growing up, in the 1940s and 50s, I never heard the words "senior citizen". I heard old people called old people. I heard young adults called adults, as were middle-aged adults. Children were children until they reached the age of thirteen, when they became teenagers. And as soon as they were twenty-one, they were considered full-grown adults. Regardless of whether they married, stayed single, had children or not, had a job or not, they were still adults. And once they passed the age of about fifty or sixty, they were "older" adults. Now, however, we have teenagers who are parents (mostly single parents)-and some of them are still in high school when their children begin school in pre-kindergarten. So will they be "senior citizens" when they become grandparents, at the ripe "old" age of thirty or less? They will already be the "older generation" to their own children and their children, so why not?

So what do we really mean when we say someone is a "senior citizen"? At the present time, at least, I think that we mean a person has at least reached the age of 55 or 60. And we need to remember that many senior citizens are still very active, now, in many endeavors. Most of us still do our own housework, grocery shopping, writing (by hand or on a computer), gardening, etc. We even DRIVE OURSELVES where we want to go! Yes, I am a senior citizen, and proud of it! I am presently in my late 60s, and plan to live and work for several more years. I don't work for the public any more, but I do still work. Just today, I pulled weeds in my yard, cooked supper for my husband and myself, helped while he put part of a roof on our porch, cleaned up the kitchen, straightened in the house a little, and even did three of the four puzzles in our daily paper. I also posted some on my MyFamily.com sites, took care of the dogs, picked up pecans in the yard, and did several other things.

Not all senior citizens are in nursing homes, hospitals, or taken care of by hospice. Many of us are independently living in our own homes, taking care of our own business, paying our own bills, shopping for ourselves, and even traveling aroound the country. We are the same people we were before we became "senior citizens", except that many of us don't have quite as much money to spend as we used to have, or quite as much energy. But we do have time to visit when company comes! For us, most of the work can be postponed a little while, or even for a day or so, because keeping our friendships and family ties strong is much more important than doing something that can easily be done later!

So don't be afraid of getting old-or older! Becoming a senior citizen is to be liberated, not imprisoned in some "care" facility! Viva la Senior Citizenship!

Learn more about this author, Barbara A. Black.
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