I hope you are doing well and enjoying the sunny days! I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to write about this month. I usually try to share helpful information about health promotion and prevention—but sometimes, the message feels more personal than factual.
With Elder Abuse Awareness Day approaching on June 15, I sometimes feel like an impostor when I talk about the privilege of aging while still being a young adult myself. For as long as I can remember, I have been an advocate for older adults, and I often think about how lucky I am to keep growing older. Still, I know I can’t fully understand what it means to age—the challenges, the losses, the nostalgia and everything in between.
A quote that stayed with me
One evening, while watching television, I heard a sentence that struck me right away: “Every old person knows what it is to be young, but no young person can know what it is to be old.”
That quote stayed with me. Not only did it capture exactly how I felt, but it also painted a fair portrait of the generation gap. At the same time, I think there is nuance to add, because life experience is shaped not only by age, but also by the cultural, social and political context in which we evolve. I’m sure we can all agree that being a young person in the 1950s is not the same as being young in 2026, and the same applies to older persons.
Ageism and self-ageism
You may recall that I have written about ageism and self-ageism before. I had mentioned that ageism is discrimination based on age, any age. Like many forms of discrimination, it often appears in subtle and informal ways. Ironically, one of the comments I hear most often comes from older adults themselves: “You know, at my age, I shouldn’t…”
As innocent or humorous as it may sound, this is a form of self-ageism: when someone holds back from doing something solely because of their age. Perhaps it is because they are living with a specific health condition, or perhaps because they have done it many times before. But when we pause to think about it, neither of those reasons is truly linked to biological age itself.
What really shapes us
I think we often use age to explain differences in habits, abilities or appearance because it lends itself easily to harmless jokes, and I understand that. However, I personally do not relate to many of the stereotypes or privileges associated with youth, which can sometimes put me in a defensive position when I hear them. “Always on their phone,” “not interested in what surrounds them,” “unwilling to work,” or “too reliant on technology” are some of the assumptions I hear most often about younger people.
To me, these traits are more closely tied to personal experiences, habits, and the context in which people were raised. Are they this way because they are 19, or because technology was integrated into every aspect of their education? Did the pandemic shape their relationship with work and socialization in ways previous generations never experienced?
It all comes down to empathy.
My point is that we often make assumptions based on age without realizing that we are feeding into ageism. Going back to the quote, I believe we cannot truly know what aging feels like until we experience it ourselves. At the same time, the fact that older adults have once been young creates a valuable opportunity for intergenerational connection, shared learning and mutual understanding. Until we can all speak from lived experience about aging, we can choose empathy, respect and curiosity.
If you made it this far into my reflection, thank you so much for following along with my thought process. If you are looking for a meaningful way to mark Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15, perhaps consider bringing this quote into a family dinner conversation or a walk with a friend. It can be a simple yet powerful way to reflect on ageism, encourage intergenerational dialogue, and help build communities that value, respect and celebrate the presence of older adults. If you’re interested in intergenerational activities, you may want to look into our Grandpals project and become a grandparent figure to a young family.
Anaïs
