Jamie Taef

AP Language

Period 1

50 Years Later…

     "In other words, I envy those in 2058, including my grandchildren who will then be about fifty-ish, living amidst the astounding advancements to come to pass, including the enhancements to both the environment and human prosperity now only a dream to billions" (Christy 16). John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Center at the University of Alabama, studies global climate issues and has looked a lot into the future to see where our earth's status will be. He has come to the conclusion that there will be no way to know exactly what the climate will be like 50 years from today, but he come to realize that no matter what crisis we may be in, there will be a solution because with all the advances that we are discovering now will be in full effect in fifty years. It is the year 2058, and soon to be 2059. The technology is nothing like it was 50 years before and there are 65 year old people still working like a 36 year old. This is because the advances in medicine have been so successful and there are cures to once life threatening diseases, like cancer or Alzheimer. The class of 2009 will be 67-68 years old and still going strong. According to the book, The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 of the World's Greatest Minds Share Their Vision of the Next Half Century, edited by Mike Wallace, many of these things, which is hard to believe now, will actually be reality. There will be robots that can actually perform surgeries with actual surgeons in another room. "The echo boomers--children of the baby boomers-- will be 45 and older and likely will be working into 70's, partly because of the labor shortage, but also because they can. Those with the most option for changing jobs and recasting their careers will have escaped the perils of obesity. There workers won't stay at the same job; the fact, they may have several careers with many more options available after age 60 than even we had imagines" (Jones 27). This quote is said by Wanda Jones, who is the director of the Office on Women's Health at the US Department of Health and Human Service. This quote shows us further how much older people will be working compared to the retiring age at this moment.The amazing advances we are working on at this moment are in the works for a brighter future.

     I have a lot planned for my life, and I hope to start right out of high school. Once I graduate from high school, I plan on attending a top culinary school in upstate New York. From this I hope to work in restaurants, bakeries, etc. because I hope to become a pastry chef. I plan on living New York and starting my career as a pastry chef and getting better and better. I want to live a very exciting life and build a very successful career, and be able to pay off any colleges loans or aid as soon as possible so I won’t need to worry about it some time further down the road. I want to be very successful so I can live comfortably and not have always worry about not being able to get myself out of a bad financial situation. Additionally, I want to work toward a healthier future. It is so easy to be so caught up in your life that you don't even have concern about what you eat and your health. Especially since I want to become a chef, I feel that I will have a lot of opportunities to experiment with different things. Mentioned by Louis Ignarro, who has a PhD at UCLA School of Medicine, "The percentage of Americans that are considered to be morbidly obese is staggering, and the largest percentage increase is evident in children and adolescents" (Ignarro 19). Ignarro has studied that such happening will result in a high rate of diabetes, strokes, and heart attacks at a dramatically young age.

    There are some things that I am terrified of now, but hoping will not be an issue in 50 year or even less. That issue is health. There is the constant issue of what to and what not to eat. When to exercise and how to exercise what. How often to visit the doctor and how to maintain a high stressed job without having a stressful life. There are also the possible chances of a trace of certain diseases in your line of family, making it very easy to get certain cancers, and various diseases. Gregory A. Poland, a professor in medicine, infectious diseases, and molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, explains various disease and how they should be easy cured in years to come. For example, "Different methods of drug administration such as nasal spray, skin patches, eye drops, and depot injections lasting months will be developed. It is possible that such drugs will prevent obesity, diabetes, arthritis. depression, and other illnesses before they occur" (Poland 179). Poland is basically telling us that the major health issues today will soon be a thing of the past because they will be cured even before they occur. Additionally, another major setback is our environment that seems like it is slowly falling apart. But, in 50 years, it is said by Keith Richburg, a reporter and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, that the environment will one day be cured because of the environmental awareness. Also, we are tried to build things like cites, or metropolitan areas that are not bad for the environment. As seen when Richburg says, "The expanded prosperity will mean fewer wars. The majority of the ten billions or so people on the planet will live in democracies, with guaranteed freedoms and more universal respect for human rights" (Richburg 176).