To achieve anything in life, we need balance. Work and life balance, balance between caring for ourselves and caring for others, so on and so forth. Similar balance is required in a family and in a country, balance between energy and experience, experimentation and patience, youth and senior citizen. Youth stand for the future and in order to form a great future, one must learn through experience and that comes from Senior Citizens. Today is Senior Citizen Day and 12th August was International Youth Day. Being a youth and being a senior citizen are two defining phases in anyone’s life. Whatever happens in between is one hell of a journey.  The senior citizens in our lives – our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles teach us a lot of things and we also teach them a thing or two in return. This year we thought of looking at a middle point and listing down a few things which youth learns from senior citizens and vice-versa. Here are a few things that we learn from our parents/grandparents: You always have a choice This is one of the most important lessons that one learns from their elders. It’s a wonderful thing to know that at any moment you have the freedom, the ability, the power to choose what to do and how to live your life. It may be a shitty choice, but a choice just the same. Making the wrong choice is maybe not so critical as realizing you do actually have choices.   When life throw lemons, crack a joke This is not just an advice, it’s a life lesson. When things get out of control or life becomes too serious, crack a joke! There’s nothing that laughing at your situations and sense of humor can’t fix. If you can laugh at yourself, you can forgive yourself. And if you can forgive yourself, you can forgive others. Humor and laughter are restorative forces and, even in the darkest of times, can help us find meaning and purpose.   Don’t be an idiot Looks will fade, what will remain with you is your attitude and mind. Develop your brain, it will take you to places you’ve never even imagined before. Your mind can give you unique value that differentiates you from everyone else. It gives you creative ideas that set you ahead of the pack and make you thrive in this competitive world. Otherwise, your skills and knowledge may soon be commoditized.   Common sense is not so common What most people lack, especially youth is common sense. The first thing you should do in any situation is apply common sense. Period. Common sense is nothing but having a knowledge of what to do and what not to do in a generic situation. E.g. Not going in a particular neighborhood at night is common sense. Nobody is going to teach you that.   Keep your eyes on the ball This advice applies in all aspects of life, not just sports. Keep your eyes on your goal, if you’ll miss, the ball is going to hit pretty hard. It’s easy to get distracted and lose focus on the things that are most important in life. Determine where you are and what you need to do to be the kind of person you want to be. Create inspiring, noble, and righteous goals that fire your imagination and create excitement in your heart. And then keep your eye on them. Work consistently towards achieving them.   Now a few things you can teach your elders:   Technology and social media You can teach them to connect with their relatives and friends. The power of social media, how it helps to communicate. But by now, they will be already on social media, and when they ask you why to post birthday wishes on the wall when you can just call? Be prepared to answer!   Current trends Be it fashion or what’s going on in the world, parents are not always up-to-date with the latest trends. You can tell them that keeping a beard is cool and ‘KiKi’ dance challenge is so in. But when they tell you that dancing in traffic is insane and beard is not for everyone, it’s okay to just keep shut!   Don’t Stress Yes, parents stress over a lot of things. You can tell them that stress is not a solution for everything, sometimes things come through, you just need to wait. But when they ask why you stress over not getting a reply from your girlfriend/boyfriend (yes, they know), be ready with an answer.   Now is the time Most of the times, parents worry about the future. They want to save and be careful and want us to do the same. We can teach them the power of now, and how important it is to live in the moment. Though they know about it all, but when they ask you if you have enough money or have your life sorted, in case you need to move out or just change jobs, be equipped with a savvy response or a few savings! Parents do learn one thing or other from us from time to time, though they will never admit it. And you can’t do anything as you can’t win from your parents, ever. “Baap to bap hi hota hai’ 😛