Life Review Assignment

For this assignment, I interviewed my 58-year-old uncle. Because the pace of his daily life has
always intrigued me. He wakes up at 6 in the morning, takes a shower and goes to work. He
returns home at 5 pm, after a short dinner break, until 9 pm, he lectures to the students in the
private lesson class he has created at home. After 9, he does research on topics that interest
him, or goes for an hour's walk, reads a book with his family. How he finds motivation for
this intense pace is a matter of curiosity for me. He said that the person who made the biggest
contribution to his life was his primary school teacher. One of the main reasons why he was
the only one among his siblings to graduate from university was his teacher, who noticed his
willingness among the students at the village school and gave him special attention and
direction. He said that he held on to education once then and never stopped, that he was
always as eager to learn as he was in his childhood, no matter how old he was; That's why he
completed his master's degree last year. He wants to create the same effect that his teacher has
on his life, in his own students. He said his motivation was to 'do the best you can' for himself
and other people. One of the events in his life that he can call a touchstone was the birth of his
first child. It was the first time he had felt such a feeling, he was inexperienced and very
afraid of making mistakes. He always felt very lacking in his mother and father. He wanted to
be very careful about his own child, but at the same time, he didn't want to turn him around so
much that he couldn't see his way. "Of course I made mistakes in raising children. But I know
that I did my best most of the time. Now I see through my children, who are adults
themselves, that I am doing the right things," he said.

When I asked how aging had affected him, he said that the learning process was slowing
down. He reiterated the advice he always gave: "You are young now. It is your most vigorous
and most important time to develop yourself and explore life. Do not ignore this chance". He
said that the slowing down of his learning due to his age is a normal situation in the natural
flow of life and he tried to keep up with it, and he did not get upset. "But let's face it, not
being able to be in my old strength physically makes me sad. Even all the stairs that I used to
climb easily make me want to rest after climbing". He thinks he's going through a good social
aging process. He has improved his communication skills by taking lessons from the mistakes
he has made in the human relations he has established until this age, and now building and
maintaining relationships with people are easy and fun processes for him. When I asked him
if he was satisfied with his life when he reviewed his life, he said that if he had a chance to go
back to the past, there were things he would like to change, but everyone would feel the same
about it, and he thought that he had a good life in general. He said that the areas he was most
satisfied with in his life were his academic and social life. The area he was least satisfied with
was child rearing. "Even though I tried my best not to make mistakes, I sometimes saw my
children as a target due to the effects of my own past. I pressured them to achieve what I
failed to achieve". The subject of asking his thoughts on death bothered me a bit. He said that
the moment when he started to feel the closest to death was the death of the eldest person
among his brothers. He felt as if it was his turn, and it was the first time he felt so close to the
reality of death. "Whenever the thought of death bothers me, I hold on to my family and loved
ones".

Now, I will talk about the analyzes I made after the interview. Tips I use to understand what
stage of development my uncle is in;

1- Age 58,

2- Valuing his social relations so much,

3- Enjoying being involved in social environments,

4- Giving importance to career development,

5- Focusing on his responsibilities in his family,

6- Decrease in physical activity (trying to maintain physical activity with activities such as
walking that does not require high effort)

7- Graying of the hair (she dyes it because she does not like the gray hair look),

8- Reviewing his life and making corrections on the mistakes he noticed,

9- His desire to make a good impact on young people's lives.

Individuals who experience the processes in the items I have mentioned are in the middle
adult stage. So my uncle is in the middle adult stage of development. Finally, for this
assignment, I think that listening to an older person I like to communicate with, learn from his
mistakes and review his life has had a positive effect on me.