Tymeirah Hayes
March 1, 2020
In the book “the dark flood rises” I began to think about how complex aging really can be. Given that the main character is in her 70’s and is still trying to figure things out. This idea makes me think about my grandmother. She just turned 70 today actually. Yet, she still hasn’t figured it all out. I think that it is safe to say that no one will ever fully figure everything out. I feel that it is foolish for us to think that-that would even be a possibility. No one is immortal, and no one has ever lived forever. We are just as oblivious to the meaning of life as someone who is asked the question what life looks like after death. To be honest, that’s the beauty of it all. Not all things need solid answers. In the story there is no solid answer.
In my interpretation the woman realizes that it’s more so about the journey than the take away from the life lived. This to me is very important to think about. Reason being because people are never given or allowed the space to just enjoy the journey. This story is very distinctive. A woman in her 70’s is taking a trip to England. If someone was to go by that alone the first question might be why. The woman would probably answer, after everything that she’s experienced, that it’s not about the why at all. Instead that it’s about the journey. The journey full of fun, sadness and genuine experience. People fail to realize that with age doesn’t come wisdom. With age comes experience, which then turns into wisdom. That wisdom isn’t always based on the simple fact that a person has the right answers. It is particularly about the experience they’ve lived through and their specific takeaways from that experience. This reading made me think a lot about my grandmother. She is very conscious of her age. Specifically, how much it gets in her way most of the time. The best thing about this story is that there is no solid plot and that the story tells different experiences. My takeaway from the story is that Fran’s age did not define her. That she was able to in the end feel proud and comfortable of the person she had become and was still looking forward to becoming.
Coming to Age 