3 WHY IS THE BOOK BEING WRITTEN I recently returned to school at age 73 to gain my doctorate. Now, as many have questioned, why did I return to school at the ripe old age of 73? My answer, I enjoy life. I am eager to learn different things. I want my mind to stay active and alert, but most of all; I don't want to sit in a rocking chair and knit in an old mother Hubbard house dress. What I resent most are my 70 plus counterparts that think my returning to school is a waste of time. However, my younger cohorts think it is marvelous that I have returned to school. I believe society has programmed our senior population to think after 65 your life should stop. Unfortunately, many of my friends and acquaintances strengthen this fallacy and see old age as an end to life when it is the beginning of a new and exciting era and phase in their life So, they sit around and say woe is me, stop dressing attractively, become immobile and psych themselves up to believe that there is only sadness in growing old. At the age of 77, I think old age is hilarious, so I decided to put my funny shared experiences of aging in a book. I hope the comedic experiences will change how my counterparts view aging, give them a good laugh, and persuade them to embrace aging as a new dawn that is just as exciting as entering adulthood at 21. Recognizing the humor in growing old will make life more enjoyable and keep a smile on your face. When I First Realized I Was Old I have always believed age was just a number, and shoo shooed any articles that dictated slowing down after age sixty-five. Articles that extolled stop working and retiring at 65; your sexual tendency will slowly fade (hmm, not yet ). You will start to gain weight, and lose your shape (truism - but only if you stop being active). However, I ignored age creeping up even though I no longer could prop my foot up on the bed or chair and bend over to polish my toenails - Oh my God Something either shrunk or my arms got shorter. At that point, I should have given credence to old age catching up with me. However, there is nothing that brings the reality of the incorrect view you hold of yourself than through the innocent eyes of young children because they speak the truth without the frills. My darling, 7 year old granddaughter came home from school excited because her teacher told the girls in the class that they could become anything they wanted to become -- a doctor, engineer or even the president of the United States Like any well-meaning grandmother, I proceeded to act as excited as my granddaughter, and we both for a few seconds jumped up and down and laughed. All of a sudden my granddaughter stopped and with a quizzical frown looked up and asked, Granny, why did you decide to become old, didn't you know you could be something else? So much for age is just a number