• Jennifer Rosner, 42, moved to a building in a Chicago suburb where most residents are older.
• Rosner has built fulfilling friendships and has a friend group spanning three generations.
• Living with older people has taught Rosner the value of enjoying life in the moment.

This as-told-to essay is based on an interview with Jennifer Rosner, 42, who lives in the suburbs of Chicago. At 36, Rosner moved into an apartment complex with mostly older residents. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2019, I had moved jobs, and the office was in the suburbs. I didn't want to commute from downtown Chicago, so I decided to bite the bullet and go to the suburbs. It's a slower life and not great for dating. Everyone's married with children.

I moved into a newly built apartment building, and it turned out to be predominantly older people. I hadn't assumed that it was going to be an older group at first. Many downsized from big homes. We actually align really well in terms of life stage. I've never gotten married or had children, and I probably won't at 42, whereas they already have done all that with their kids grown.

When I first moved in a few months prior to the pandemic, I was a private, autonomous person. I couldn't help but run into people and talk to them. I soon found out that everyone here loves to talk and hang out. They force themselves to talk to you. I wasn't sure, though, if I wanted to hang out with an 85-year-old on a Saturday night. Turns out that it's a lot of fun.

It started off with me going to community events. One person started a book club. Another wanted to talk about current events. There was a canasta training one night. As a corporate person, my life is fairly empty. I'm going to work, and I like to write and hang out with family and a group of people my age. I became self-aware and asked myself why I couldn't do more things. I forced myself to update the way I was behaving.

I was helping my neighbors get their vaccines scheduled because they couldn't get online to the right place. I wanted to make friends with them without it feeling like a parent-child relationship. There are things I've done that a child probably does, like drive them to a doctor's appointment. It feels like an additional extended group of people I need to watch out for, and vice versa.

I'm an old soul

I'm an only child and have no cousins in my age range. I never went to day care. My mom would bring me along everywhere, and the same thing with my dad when he wasn't working. The three of us were like a pod.

I certainly was socialized and had lots of nice interactions with people my own age. But I was definitely more consumed with an older group of people. I also have three aunts on my dad's side who do not have children. I had really great grandparents who were fun, social, and young-spirited. My dad's mom is now 101.

It's more of a nurture-than-nature situation. I've always had a taste for older music. I was really obsessed with Tony Bennett. I watched lots of Mel Brooks and shows from the Borscht Belt. I was probably alive in the 1950s and have been reincarnated as a 42-year-old in 2026.

It's been easy to make friends

It's been hard for me to find people in my age group who are available to do what I want. My priorities are different from those of people my own age right now. I'm not having to save money for someone's college education or to scoot somebody out of soccer practice. I avoid the drama in mom chats.

At the same time, it can get lonely. It was really serendipitous and unintentional that I found this group of older women here who want to do everything together. They want to see a movie at 10 p.m. because they can. They want to go to dinner on a Tuesday because they can. They want to walk at whatever hour because they can.

They have a ton to share and have done a lot I haven't done yet or will never do. I'm learning from them, and they're learning from me. It's very symbiotic.

There's something happening here, which I can already tell has the foundational elements of a reciprocal relationship. Over the last four years, the group has gotten smaller. People naturally fade in and out, and some people die. Others moved out or moved in.

I have two super close friends here whom I hang out with all the time. We never run out of things to say. We've talked about hosting a recruitment fair, setting up a table in the lobby, almost like sorority rush. Whenever someone moves in, we talk about whether they would be a fun person to incorporate. There are definitely factions here, but everyone is still cordial and says hello.

Every Saturday night, there's an outing with three to four women. We get dinner, explore Chicago, run errands, and shop. We occasionally see movies. The building gets a lot quieter in the winter because a whole chunk of them go to Florida. It's sometimes hard to schedule because many of them pick up odd jobs like working at a pilates studio or running small businesses.

I've learned so much from living with these people

I've always had very good financial literacy, and I live within my means. Talking to these women has been a huge wake-up call that I'd better stay on my savings journey because there's a long road ahead of me, if I'm lucky. Some of these people need to work, or their retirement plans aren't super sound even if they are retired, and that scares me. I don't want to be 80 and have to wake up to an alarm to go to a job.

I do have some anticipatory grief. Sometimes, I have existential anxiety about getting older and not having many people around. I do have some friends in my age group, but many are 30 years older than I am. God willing, I live a long life, and they live long lives, but they will die first if things go according to plan, and that would 100% devastate me. I think a lot about how to plan correctly so I'm not taking myself to my own colonoscopies.

I really enjoy my life, and I can't say if this was the right or wrong decision because there could have been a better life path for me, but I wouldn't know it. I learned not to hold myself to a script because nothing ever happens the way it should. Life happens first, and if you give in and enjoy the moment, that's a satisfying life. People die sooner because they're lonely, and it really doesn't take much to spark a conversation with another person. I fly by the seat of my pants and do the things that make me happy.

France is preparing for another weekend of mass demonstrations as youth-led protests spread across Europe. Behind the unrest lies a broader dispute over economic priorities, public spending and the political influence of younger generations.

France and Germany face major demonstrations on Saturday, 31 October, as a wave of youth-led protests across Europe raises questions about the relationship between younger voters and political establishments struggling to reconcile economic pressures with competing spending priorities.

French authorities have mobilised approximately 70,000 police officers and gendarmes for a third consecutive weekend of protests over living costs, education and public services. In Germany, organisers expect more than 160,000 people to participate in demonstrations across 34 cities.

Although the movements have emerged under different national circumstances, their grievances reveal common concerns: declining purchasing power, deteriorating public infrastructure, limited political representation and uncertainty about future economic prospects.

France prepares for further unrest

The French demonstrations began with dissatisfaction among secondary-school pupils before developing into a wider protest movement involving trade unions, yellow vest activists and other organisations.

As EU Today reported during the initial wave of student demonstrations, complaints about teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and deteriorating educational facilities rapidly developed into a national confrontation.

According to official figures, approximately 550,000 people participated in demonstrations on 17 October, followed by 410,000 a week later. Union estimates were higher.

The demonstrations on 17 October were accompanied by widespread disorder, including attacks on commercial premises and public property. Subsequent protests were largely peaceful, although numerous arrests continued.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has warned that the latest demonstrations present a particularly high risk of disturbances, especially during the evening.

The security measures announced for the Halloween weekend include restrictions on demonstrations in central Paris and increased policing around areas affected by earlier violence.

Student organisations and trade unions have challenged the restrictions, arguing that they interfere with freedom of assembly. French authorities maintain that the measures are necessary to prevent further attacks and looting.

The political significance is heightened by France’s approaching presidential election in 2027. President Emmanuel Macron’s administration must manage the immediate security situation while addressing dissatisfaction extending beyond individual government policies.

Germany’s younger generation enters the debate

Germany’s demonstrations have a somewhat different character.

The campaign group Gen Z regelt, broadly translated as Generation Z Takes Charge, has organised protests in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and other cities, demanding improved education, affordable living conditions, better healthcare and stronger climate policies.

The movement also opposes the expansion of compulsory military service.

According to details of the nationwide mobilisation, organisers expect more than 160,000 participants, although these figures represent expressions of interest rather than confirmed attendance.

Germany’s debate over military service has particular significance in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine and Europe’s efforts to strengthen its defence capabilities.

As EU Today previously examined, Germany’s military-service framework has already generated controversy over the obligations of military-age men, including rules governing prolonged travel abroad.

For younger Germans, the possibility of further compulsory military obligations raises questions about individual freedoms, generational responsibility and the allocation of public resources.

Organisers argue that governments are willing to increase military expenditure while schools, universities and social infrastructure face financial constraints.

However, opposition to conscription should not automatically be interpreted as opposition to European defence or assistance to Ukraine. The demonstrators’ objectives encompass several policy areas, and the movement is not politically uniform.

Security concerns and political mobilisation

German authorities have approached the demonstrations cautiously.

The Hessian Interior Ministry’s assessment warned that violent extremist groups might attempt to exploit gatherings in Frankfurt and elsewhere.

At the same time, Stuttgart’s municipal authorities stated that they had no concrete evidence suggesting that the local demonstration would descend into violence comparable to the disorder witnessed in France.

The distinction matters. Organisers have explicitly rejected violence, while authorities remain responsible for protecting participants, businesses and public infrastructure.

The question of who is organising the movement has nevertheless attracted scrutiny. Germany’s national student representatives have distanced themselves from the initiative, while acknowledging the legitimacy of the concerns being expressed.

A wider European phenomenon

The demonstrations form part of a broader pattern involving younger Europeans.

As EU Today’s recent analysis of Generation Z protests examined, mobilisation in France, Belgium, Italy and Serbia has brought together concerns about housing, education, employment and political accountability.

These movements do not constitute a single coordinated European organisation. Their objectives, political affiliations and methods differ considerably.

Nevertheless, their emergence suggests that similar economic and social pressures are generating comparable political responses.

European governments are simultaneously confronting difficult decisions over defence expenditure, ageing populations, public finances and energy security.

In France, demands for higher public spending come against the background of substantial government debt and pressure to reduce the budget deficit.

In Germany, the argument is increasingly connected to the allocation of resources between social priorities and the expansion of military capabilities.

These tensions do not necessarily represent incompatible objectives. Defence, education and economic stability all form part of Europe’s long-term security.

The political difficulty lies in demonstrating how competing priorities can be financed without placing a disproportionate burden on particular generations.

For European institutions, the immediate significance of the protests is therefore not simply their scale.

It is whether the demands of younger voters begin to influence national budgets, military-service policies and electoral programmes as governments prepare for a period of sustained strategic and economic pressure.