If the 2025 vernacular makes you feel like you need a translator, or a time machine back to high school, same. We’re over here still thinking “67” means the age you finally qualify for Medicare and maybe get to retire.

Whether you were a flash cards weeks in advance or cramming until 2am kind of student, growing up, you knew that tests mattered. This week, we dusted off our JanSports, channeled our inner teenage selves (braces and bangs not needed), and studied the Longevity Preparedness Index from MIT AgeLab and The Hartford. You might consider proactively grounding yourself because we grabbed the report card from the mailbox before our parents could and the grades weren't great.

💍 At 101 years old, Ann Angeletti still runs her New Jersey jewelry store six days a week with no plans to stop. Her secret? “Keep moving, keep learning, and love what you do.” 

💸 A new AP-NORC poll found that nearly 60% of Americans are very or extremely worried about rising health-care costs in the year ahead.

🎃 Caregiver.com shared tips for creating a dementia-friendly Halloween, from using soft lighting and calm music to avoiding jump scares and noisy decorations.

👩‍👧 U.S. News & World Report explores “eldest daughter syndrome”, the pressure many firstborn daughters feel to manage, fix, and care for everyone around them.

When it comes to aging well, many have the prerequisites covered. Healthy diet and exercise? Check. 401(k)s? Check. Pickleball dates with good pals? Double check. Some even have document-organizing apps, medical deets dialed in, and pharmacies who text like they’re your lab partner.

But according to MIT AgeLab and The Hartford’s Longevity Preparedness Index (LPI), there’s one subject we’re collectively bombing: care.

Out of eight domains that measure how ready Americans are to live longer, better lives—health, home, finance, community, social connection, daily activity, life transitions, and care—care ranked dead last. Forty-two out of a hundred. A solid F. The kind of score that makes you pray the teacher grades on a curve.

It’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we don’t plan for it. And unlike school, there’s no repeating grades in aging.

No one wants to picture their mom needing help dressing, or imagine themselves needing it. We tell ourselves we’ll figure it out when we get there, which is basically like starting the report as you’re handing it in. But care is the subject that connects every other class. Health depends on it. Home depends on it. Finances crumble without it.

Kind of like the results from Sun-In you left in your hair way too long, the LPI results are a little hard to look at. 70% of older adults will need some level of ongoing care, yet less than half of Americans have talked about who will provide it, and only 16% have an actual plan. That gap between knowing and doing? That’s where panic lives, family riffs hide, and late night Googling starts.

MIT AgeLab calls aging a design challenge, and we think care is the part of the group project where everyone zones out. Want to improve your test results before the teacher calls pencils down? Go ahead and look at our notes. 

Start talking before it’s extra credit. Care conversations are the senior projects of adulthood, nobody wants to start them, but future you will be grateful you did. Ask your parents, siblings, or partners what they want care to look like, not just what they can afford.

Put it in writing. Power of attorney, living wills, advance directives—legal homework? Maybe. But they’re really love notes to your future self and the people who’ll help you.

Design for dignity. Don’t wait for a crisis to install a grab bar or clear the cluttered hallway. Make your home, and your habits, something future you will thank you for. Mobility aids aren’t a downgrade, they’re extra credit that applies to your next class. 

Make a care budget. You planned for college (or at least the loans). Do the same for care. It’s coming whether you prep for it or not, so get ahead before it’s midterm season.

Know what you can and can’t control. You’re more valedictorian and your mom and dad are staring down summer school? Bookmark Benefits CheckUp and familiarize yourself with what services are available where they live. So, if they’re unwilling to study for what’s ahead, you’re not left cramming when the call for help comes in. 

Don’t make care a forgotten elective, think of it as your homeroom class. Planning for it isn’t another assignment, it’s what turns living longer into actually living better. Do the homework now.

Helpful care-focused finds we’ve identified and researched so you don’t have to. 

Stand By Me: Navigating Your Loved One’s Caregiving Journey offers honest, hopeful stories from author Dr. Sharon L. Cohen about what it really means to show up for someone you love. It blends practical guidance with moments of grace. The kind that reminds you you’re not in it alone (and trust us, you’re not.)

Why it’s Gray Monster approved? Because caregiving isn’t just logistics, it’s a ton of love, a lot of patience, some frustration, and learning how to stay steady through change.

You said it

“It’s so cute how my parents and MIL interact in the group chat about Wordle. They love every message.”

“Taking care of my mom has been exhausting and beautiful at the same time. I’ve never laughed and cried so much in one season of life.”

“My dad now calls me before every doctor’s appointment so I ‘don’t worry’, even though I’m the one who scheduled it.”

“How do you find the balance and not lose yourself in taking care of them? It’s just so much.”

“I taught my mom how to FaceTime, and now she calls just to show me the dog sleeping.”

“Feeling so full of sorrow, moving my parents into assisted living. This downsize is heartbreaking.”