Life is a never ending cycle which begins with birth and ends in death, as William Shakespeare said, there are seven stages of life and we all pass through these stages without fail.

In today's world, everyone is obsessed with youth, people find it difficult to accept that growing old is a fact of life, changing your external appearance has no effect, there is no fountain of youth and you cannot escape old age.

When we are young, we think differently and most of the time, we find it difficult to communicate with old people, this could be due to several factors such as difference of opinion, attitude towards life, willingness to accept others point of view, use of technology such as social media and the sources of information that we rely on that form our views of the world.

This is something that we all face, when we are young, we cannot understand what the old are talking about and we laugh and make fun of them and in the process we offend and disrespect them because we are unwilling to listen and learn.

There are many names for this, such as communication gap and generation gap, the young and the old cannot be expected to have the same world view and come to the same conclusion about current events.

The youth of today are dependent on technology and think that they know it all, in reality technology is not a substitute for first hand experience of the real world, technology is there to help us, it cannot teach us how to behave in difficult situations, which is where the elderly can make a difference.

Instead of constantly trying to prove that we are better than our elders, we must try to learn from them. Here are some ways we can gain some useful knowledge from our elders:

1. The elderly have personal experiences which they can share, that is not found in books and on the internet, we need to hear them out and listen to what they have to say, this is a learning experience that will be beneficial to you for life.
2. It helps to ask for opinions and suggestions, when you are confused and are unable to proceed in life, this is where the wisdom of the old can provide guidance, they have been there and done that, we need to let them help us, so that we do not repeat the same mistakes that they made.
3. Although, the elderly are active on social media, they lived in a time of physical interaction and are happy when young people talk to them face to face, because that is how they lived and how they did things before the coming of social media.
4. Old people, nowadays are on their own and lead lonely lives, they become happy and feel valued and respected when the young talk to them, appreciate what they have achieved and show their gratitude for everything that they have done for them.
5. The elderly act as a link between the past and the present, we need to give them the recognition that they deserve and see to it that they are made comfortable.

We need to remember, the elderly were there for us when we were young and helpless, now it our turn to take care of them in their old age, during their time of need.