Grandparents have experienced many different situations, and have made good decisions as well as bad. Whether someone has their grandparents around or not, they know what it’s like to learn from others past.The benefits of the elderly and youth working together is youth can learn, and the elderly can live.

The elderly know what it’s like, to make the wrong decision in the heat of the moment, and can share those mistakes with the youth so that they don’t repeat the mishap.For example, if an elderly woman chose to quit the volleyball team because she didn’t make varsity her freshman year, she could share with young teenage girls that it’s not about what team you’re on. Going out on the court to play your best and get better everyday is the important thing. Learning from mistakes is a good way for the youth to learn, and the elderly have many stories to learn from. Most elderly also have regrets such as, only going to Texas A&M because that’s where all their buds were going then soon flunking out of college for making wrong decisions with their “buds”. Having regrets is something someone would have to live with their whole life, so the elderly sharing their regrets with the youth may help the youth learn what to do while they’re young. Therefore, the elderly can help the youth learn by sharing mistakes and regrets.

Most of the elderly don’t get out the house much or live in a nursing home, so the youth could help keep them up to date on today’s society. For example, an elderly man may have just gotten a new iPhone but isn’t sure how to operate it so his fifteen year old grandson comes over to teach the older man. Many new, and exciting events happen everyday but the elderly might not know about them unless a teenager delivers the news to them. The exciting events could be a good reason for the youth to tell the elderly not to give into the raging fire of death. In Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” Thomas states, “Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Thomas delivers the message that choosing your words carefully is important and you shouldn’t resign or give into death, fight til the end. The youth delivering the news of today’s society could help the elderly realize what the elderly would leave behind if they gave up. The elderly need to live, and with the help of the youth it makes it easier.

Everyone has made a good or bad decision and learned from it, but learning from someone else’s past can help too. Whether it’s a teenager deciding if they should stay on JV or an elderly woman wondering what she’d leave behind in this world, sharing pasts and current events are important.