It’s pretty well known in society today that there’s a gap in understanding between Gen Z and Gen Dinosaur. Whoops, I meant the Boomers.
Those in my generation, the Zoomers, believe that the Boomers took the American Dream for themselves, leaving nothing behind except high tuition rates and even higher housing costs.
The Boomers believe that us children don’t know what hard work is, saying, “I walked three miles to get to school everyday … I had to milk a cow and cull a chicken if I wanted supper that night … I had to write my essays by hand, in cursive.”
Now, before I go upsetting either generation, this is not a column discussing who has/had it harder. This is a column about the joys of intergenerational friendship.
I was lucky enough to grow up with two sets of great grandparents, while many people my age didn’t even get to meet their grandparents.
They weren’t just alive during my adolescence, but an active part of my childhood. If you’ve read my previous column, you already know.
I recently called my grandma, and asked when and why I started to hang out with elderly folk, as I don’t recall when it started.
“I’ve never known you to not hang out with old people,” my grandma said.
“All of your best friends are old people,” my grandpa jokingly said in the background. “Look at me and your grandma.”
“We are your best friends, but we’re not old,” my grandma replied.
Even though he was joking, my grandpa was right. I’ve had a lot of great friends in my life, and a lot of them are not spry chickens.
My grandma was also right, my grandparents are very young.
I think people in my generation have a sense of arrogance that they’re not aware of. In the sense that they think they know more because they can properly use google; and when they turn their phone on, they don’t accidentally take a screenshot.
We forget that life experience can teach you more than a Reddit thread or TikTok rant.
Who has life experience? People who have lived for 80-plus years.
My sophomore year of high school, I read to a former pastor, Grace, who was going blind. Don’t think of me too highly, I did get paid for this endeavor. I read Grace her own book, and her mail.
Grace had done decades of missionary work in the Philippines, and wrote an autobiography about her experiences.
Every time I pronounced a word wrong, she’d sit up in her nursing home bed, and say, “Didn’t anyone teach you how to read?” I walked in one day with bright purple hair, switching it from bright pink. She might’ve been going blind, but she saw enough, nodding her head and demanding, “Why would you do this to yourself?”
I was invited, personally, to her 100th birthday party. I spent the time gathering her presents from attendees and making sure people had something to drink.
Grace would never admit it, but she loved when I came to read to her, and it was a sad day for both of us when we finished her book.
I learned so much from Grace. I learned how to properly pronounce “Tagalog,” I learned how to properly open an envelope with that knife-thing that most older people use, and I learned that I relish in the company of a slightly mean, 100-year-old lady.
What I loved about Grace is what I love about most elderly people: They don’t care what people think and speak their truth.
One of my favorite quotes is by former Chicago Sun-Times advice columnist Anne Landers, who says, “At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.”
I believe that Social Media and the internet has turned my generation against aging, especially women. Anti-aging products are shoved in our faces, baby botox is the new fad for 20-somethings, and Facetune is a celebrity’s best friend.
Leonardo DiCaprio, the millennial golden boy, has never been seen with a woman above the age of 25.
Due to that, I think my generation tends to be slightly ageist, afraid of those who have life experience and physically show it.
Because of those with a wrinkle or two, I’ve learned how to crochet, bake, cook, sew, play blackjack, converse in-person, paint tar on an outside wall, enjoy black coffee, play solitaire, ride a horse, take a joke, and much more.
Because of me, the elderly have learned about Harry Styles, TikTok, how to send a text message, how to mute the TV, how to take a selfie, “lol” means “laugh out loud,” and not “lots of love” (looking at you grandma), and how to wish someone “Happy Birthday” on Facebook, rather than posting “Happy Birthday” to nobody on your Facebook wall (looking at you G-Donna).
So, to all of you around my age, 24, I urge you to befriend a senior citizen. You might learn a thing or two.
And to all the old people out there, go talk to a youngin, some of us are cool.
