The thing about older people

[deurbano]

25. I'm 69. I returned to Berkeley in 2022 to finally finish my Sociology BA, and I graduated last year.

I got all A pluses, which was quite an improvement over my previous GPA! Of course, at my age, I actually did (most!) of the reading, which (it turns out) can be quite helpful. I was very worried about how I would do, since admission to Berkeley is a lot more competitive now, and I have taken any slight indication that I’m slowing down as a sign of serious cognitive decline. (I’m extremely anxious by nature, and tend to catastrophize!) I was very relieved to find I could still excel as a student, and in fact, my instructors considered me to be one of the top students in each class… and a few told me they appreciated how much they were learning from me. (It was shocking how much even the graduate student instructors didn’t know about critical events I actually lived through… like the realignment of the parties when Southern Dems switched to the GOP over civil rights.)

On the other hand, my fluid intelligence was not as… fluid. I was still quick at analysis and understanding (etc.), but (compared to my younger self) I felt a bit slower at word retrieval and crafting oral (not written) responses or arguments… although that might also be a reflection of not having been immersed in academic vocabulary for so many decades. At the same time, my crystallized intelligence (based on all that I’ve experienced and learned through those decades) helped make up for that, and so did my cognitive reserve. If I encountered personal limitations, I could find ways around them.

I also wrote a paper (not assigned) on Du Bois that examined the racial wealth gap by comparing two families–my own white family and that of Nikole Hannah-Jones (The 1619 Project). I was born in a MS Delta county adjacent to the county where her Black father was born, and race played a pivotal role in our families’ contrasting trajectories in term of wealth accumulation. My professor, who used to be the head of the American Sociological Association, really loved it and wanted to publish it… but he told me to leave it in his hands (8 months ago), and then I never heard back (except I learned he might have retired). I guess one thing I didn’t outgrow is being timid about advocating for myself, since I haven’t pursued it. (I’m great at advocating for others, though!)

For Joe Biden, who was never the best public speaker, always made gaffes, and has lived with a speech disability his whole life, I don’t think public speaking should be the measure of his ability to govern. Of course, I’ve always thought charisma and eloquence are overrated qualities for elected officials. (They are definitely icing on the cake, but not the most important qualities.) The main requirement (for me) is supporting the right policies, and then being able to get them enacted as effectively as possible, given the existing constraints, and Biden has more than exceeded my hopes in that regard. In fact, I really underestimated him… not because of age, but because I had assumed he would be more moderate than he has turned out to be.