SMILE!

For my seenagers— a relatively recent term combines the words “senior” and “teenager.” It refers to an older person, usually aged 65 or over, who maintains an active lifestyle, a youthful attitude, and an interest in new generations' popular activities and trends.

Seenagers refuse to conform to the stereotypes associated with aging. We smile as we remain socially engaged, adopt positive attitudes, and continue to explore new experiences.

We are active on community-based boards, and social networks, interested in fashion, technology, music, and the activities of younger generations.

Seenagers are fully anchored in this time and will continue to play a positive role in society. Not only do we smile, we also laugh out loud. And we share our opinions.

The seenager smiles at the earnestness of young people, having learned from experience that everything is cyclical. Along with their contemporaries, seenagers participated in the fierce Civil Rights, Black Power, Back to Africa, End the Viet Nam war, and economic battles of the '60s and 70s. We endured the murders of our leaders—Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, and so many other champions for our rights.

We rejoiced at the victories of the Congressional Black Caucus; Shirley Chisholm’s run for President of the United States laid the groundwork for Barack Obama’s historic presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012.

Our smiles hid pain, disappointment, anger, and a host of other emotions when we faced pushback, betrayal, or defeat. Whatever our economist's status in 2024, we remember the pushback, the turncoats who kept the opposition fully informed of our strategies and tried to minimize every victory gained.

Even with the lessons learned from victory and defeat, we smile at the youthful warriors who hopefully learned from our victories and our mistakes…and use that intel to guide us to a more just place.

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Joyce A. Brown is a motivational speaker and author who uses her creative energy to give voice and meaning to the challenges women face in all walks of life. She grew up in Rockford, Illinois in a household of strong women, but her professional career expanded her reach into Peoria and Battle Creek, Michigan. She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and has served as a direct services worker, executive director, program director for a major foundation, and entrepreneur. Joyce has experienced many uplifting moments as a professional and as a dedicated parent and strives to bring those events and lessons to life through her characters in the contemporary fiction novels she pens. Visit her Author’s Page