HOUSTON, March 12, 2024--More than half (54%) of Americans say it’s their goal to live to 100, according to a new study from Corebridge Financial and The Longevity Project. Family, friends and new experiences are seen as the top benefits of a very long life, with 72% of respondents citing continued meaningful relationships with family and friends and 65% looking for more time to explore and have new experiences.
I used to think like that, but the older I get the more I’m starting to think otherwise.
I’m not super old yet but I’ve had a pretty eventful life and was probably a bit too hard on my physical form when I was younger and considered myself indestructible. Now I have back pain, knee issues, pulmonary fibrosis (scarred lungs from dusty environments), messed up right wrist, missing part of two fingers on my left hand, deteriorating eyesight etc etc.
I’m not wishing for death or anything, but there starts to be a point where you really don’t want to keep slowly getting worse to the point you can’t do what you love anymore and you’re just a burden to others. That becomes the time that you just want that last big sleep to finally get here.
Now if we could fix all these common ailments and keep our bodies like we were back in our twenties, that would be a different story…
I am 46 and I have always felt this way. And trust me, I have been through a lot of pain, both physical and mental, and am still in that pain. I have trigeminal neuralgia and I have a separate, almost certainly unrelated, condition that I’m going to the Mayo Clinic for at the end of this month.
I have felt 10 on the 1 to 10 pain scale multiple times. I have been so poor that I almost ended up homeless. And to top it off, I’m type II bipolar!
I’m not saying all of this for pity, I’m just saying that despite all of that, I want to live as long as possible. Why would I want to die when there are always new and amazing things to learn about?
Now, to be fair, I have also been suicidal in my life, but I realized almost too late that it wasn’t what I actually wanted to do. I think it required me to go there to figure out that if I could live as long as I chose to live, even if it was a thousand years, I would do it. Yes, I would want to die one day. But not until I wanted to.
I think (for me anyways) the worst ones are eyesight and mobility. Both my kids are in their thirties and I do as much as I can to help them and work on my oldest’s house and vehicles, but once those things go out on me I’ll be about ready for the end.
I understand that way of thinking. However, I think if that were me, I’d keep holding out hope for medical help for those conditions.