We’ve all experienced the sensations: not feeling as energetic as usual, forgetting some common thoughts, feeling more susceptible to aches and pains. And we ask ourselves: Is this normal aging? Or is something wrong? Well, in a recent piece in Kaiser Health News, writer Bruce Horovitz lays out some general signposts regarding what may begin to happen to your body at various ages. While not everyone ages the same, the article offers some useful clues in case you’re wondering what lies ahead. So gird yourself, and Click Here.

But there’s also something to be said for carrying on and disrupting expectations. As an example, while your 70s may herald a new era of chronic illness or muscle loss, it doesn’t mean you need to pack up and retreat. For a fascinating glimpse of older people defying the expectations of aging, and exceeding the 81-year-old life expectancy of New York City residents, check out the Exceeding Expectations Project of the Columbia University Robert N. Butler Aging Center. Through individual stories in video, photography, and writing, the project highlights the lives of 20 senior New Yorkers who live active lives despite commonly-held beliefs, and some hard realities, about how they should be living.