In my childhood, there were many movies and TV series about flying saucers from outer space. I loved to watch them. But most of these TV series were in black and white then.
I remember a time when I was in primary school. There were rumours about some students seeing a little green man in the forested area just behind our school field. This spurred on our hunt for little aliens.
As children, we had many crazy imaginations, full of weird ideas. But now, in retirement and the 21st century, the topic of flying saucers seems to be buried in some historical chest. Children in today’s world hardly talk about such crazy things. Instead, we are talking about AI graphics, AI-generated voices, AI-generated faces, and realistic 3D video games.
Can we, in our senior years, match these youngsters in their dreams with our years of experience? Do we understand their dreams and have a good conversation to relive our childhood days in this modern world? Childhood days are a wonderful time. Play, explore, and dream without worrying, except when the exam comes.
We have many years of experience behind us, but I find it challenging to understand today’s younger people. I don’t want to live in my world of yesterday, and I think we should not. We need to be relevant in today’s world and guide the young with our experience of the past.
This way, we can have meaningful conversations with younger people and not be labelled as old people with old thinking.
William Kho
William Kho was a senior management staff member of a water treatment company. He is now fully retired and pursuing a happy and meaningful retirement life.
