It is not a secret that elders are now living more and more in comparison with previous

generations. There are different factors that define this situation, but more interestingly, we also
have a new situation where we need to take advantage of what they can offer to our societies. In
my opinion, I believe that they can contribute into two very specific aspects. The first aspect is
that they can share their long experience with others. And, the second point is connected to
work, because they are still able to be economically active. In next lines, I will give some details
and examples to support my opinion.

In first place, elders have lot of experience that can be applied to different areas and they can
offer this to others. One of the areas is work: they can tutor other people to learn how to do
certain activities. At the same time, they can offer help to their families taking care of children or
giving valuable information about how to do it. For example, my grandmother is still in very good
shape and she worked all her life as a hairdresser. Now, she basically dedicates to teach younger
people how to work as hairdressers and they are very thankful with her about it. This is a good
example that reinforces my point of view.

Another reason that it is also important is about how elders can be economically active. They can
create new businesses in areas such as handcrafting. And, additionally, they can have group
businesses, where they associate with other elders. Grandma is a great illustration of this
because her tutoring lessons eventually became a school for hairdressers. And, considering that
she expanded her growing business, she had to find help through other former business partners
who, like her, had already retired. With this, she is not just sharing her knowledge but also
contributing to our economy.

With all the reasons that I exposed before it is clear why elders can be of importance in our
modern societies. After all, we are going to become elders too and we will also do the same.