Anthony Brooks

That's the main point here.

You got a good chance, Ayesha.

You got a good chance.

Yeah, it is crazy.

And consider that some 80 million people in the United States are over the age of 60 and there are more and more of them every day.

In fact, as many as 10,000 people a day are turning 65.

So we're living longer and there are a whole lot more of us thinking about sort of what do we do with this extra two or three decades of life?

And those who study this period have given it a name.

It's called middle-essence.

Think of it as a later-in-life adolescence.

It's a time of change, of tumult, but it can also be a time of opportunity and growth, like adolescence.

And by the way, Aisha, old age or older age offers an opportunity to be even happier than you might have been.

And there's research on this, the so-called U-shaped theory of happiness.

That suggests that happiness declines for many people from the teens or early 20s into the 40s and 50s, but then rises again when people hit their 60s, 70s, even their 80s.

So this can be a really great time to reimagine your life.

Absolutely.

I mean, there's no doubt that making these changes takes work and sometimes a lot of courage.

So let me tell you about another woman I interviewed for this series.

Her name is Juliana Richardson.

She grew up in Newark, Ohio, and she was the only Black girl in her elementary school class.