Is That a Real Flower? by Daria Duffy
Photography
Getting Older by Emma Reno
College Essay (Nonfiction)
As my grandpa has gotten older, I have learned a lot of different things about growing old. It is weird to think that I knew my grandpa as one person for my whole life, and now that he is getting older, it almost seems like he’s a whole different person. The reason why my grandpa seems like a whole different person is because he has dementia.
At the beginning of my grandpa's journey with dementia, there were a lot of doctor appointments and confusion. It was hard to hear doctors telling us that he shouldn’t be driving or that he needed to go to speech therapy because all of these problems suddenly came so fast and it was something that we had never even thought of before. Even though my grandpa still had an amazing sense of direction, we had to take away his car about a year ago because he wouldn’t want to drive at night, or we would worry about how his driving was. Taking away his car took away a lot of his independence like being able to go to the store by himself or to be able to drive to our house whenever he wants.
Dementia is not only really hard for the person who has it, but also everyone else in the family because it can progress fast and it ends up changing someone significantly. Along with my grandpa losing the independence to be able to drive, dementia has made him physically and mentally less independent too. My grandpa’s dementia has come with a lot of other things like anxieties, which have made it really hard for him to have confidence walking, and then other things like aphasia, which causes him to have a hard time speaking and forming sentences. I've developed a lot of respect for all the things my mom and my aunt do to help my grandpa because they can’t always understand what he wants or what he is talking about, but they try their best to help him. My mom and my aunt both work so hard at their own jobs and then whenever they aren’t at work, they are working even harder to take care of my grandpa on their own time.
As I’ve gotten older I have come to realize how fast things can change and how valuable time can be. I know that since my grandpa's dementia has progressed quickly and since I know that it will only get worse, it is important to spend valuable time with him. I’ve also developed a new understanding of how hard things can be for my mom and my aunt. As my family and I have gone through this journey with my grandpa’s dementia, it has changed the way I see the world because now I put more value on the relationships I have with my family, as well as the time I have left with them.
At the beginning of my grandpa's journey with dementia, there were a lot of doctor appointments and confusion. It was hard to hear doctors telling us that he shouldn’t be driving or that he needed to go to speech therapy because all of these problems suddenly came so fast and it was something that we had never even thought of before. Even though my grandpa still had an amazing sense of direction, we had to take away his car about a year ago because he wouldn’t want to drive at night, or we would worry about how his driving was. Taking away his car took away a lot of his independence like being able to go to the store by himself or to be able to drive to our house whenever he wants.
Dementia is not only really hard for the person who has it, but also everyone else in the family because it can progress fast and it ends up changing someone significantly. Along with my grandpa losing the independence to be able to drive, dementia has made him physically and mentally less independent too. My grandpa’s dementia has come with a lot of other things like anxieties, which have made it really hard for him to have confidence walking, and then other things like aphasia, which causes him to have a hard time speaking and forming sentences. I've developed a lot of respect for all the things my mom and my aunt do to help my grandpa because they can’t always understand what he wants or what he is talking about, but they try their best to help him. My mom and my aunt both work so hard at their own jobs and then whenever they aren’t at work, they are working even harder to take care of my grandpa on their own time.
As I’ve gotten older I have come to realize how fast things can change and how valuable time can be. I know that since my grandpa's dementia has progressed quickly and since I know that it will only get worse, it is important to spend valuable time with him. I’ve also developed a new understanding of how hard things can be for my mom and my aunt. As my family and I have gone through this journey with my grandpa’s dementia, it has changed the way I see the world because now I put more value on the relationships I have with my family, as well as the time I have left with them.