Lesson 2 In Someone Else’s Shoes
Experiencing the Golden Years
Try as we ____ we cannot stay young forever.
Although this is a truth everyone knows, the thought of becoming old is usually the furthest thing from our ____
That’s why we rarely pay attention to the physical changes that make everyday life challenging for the elderly or the financial difficulties they may experience ____ retirement.
Many of ____ consider these problems irrelevant to our lives, so we have little understanding of what it means to be old.
In order to understand the elderly more, 27-year-old Regina Martin and ____ Trent Bowman decided to participate in a TV documentary called Switching Ages.
For one month, they transformed themselves ____ old people.
In addition to learning how to walk and ____ like people in their seventies,
Regina and ____ also spent five hours every morning putting on make-up to look older.
They ____ wore heavy body suits and contact lenses that hindered their movements and eyesight.
Finally, they wore fake ____ and gray wigs to complete their aged looks.
Their amazing disguises, however, were only the tip of the iceberg of the transformation they would ____
Regina’s Story
Regina Martin has been ____ passionate dance instructor for the past three years.
Although she is still a few years away from turning 30, Regina is starting to feel even more pressure to retain ____ looks.
She obsessively takes care of her body and always ____ healthy food.
She has a strong fear of her youth disappearing and feels uncomfortable around old people, ____ the point where she is unwilling to visit her 81-year-old grandmother.
On the first day of her challenge, Regina could only ____ at her transformed self in disbelief.
After a few minutes, ____ sighed and said, “This wrinkled face doesn’t look nice.”
Later Regina was sent to a tiny flat in a retirement complex, where she spent several days enduring solitude and gradually adapted ____ living alone.
As part of the experiment, Regina worked at a grocery store ____ many elderly people visit.
Thinking that they would be boring and stuffy, ____ was reluctant to have conversations with them at first.
____ she soon found it very enjoyable to talk with them.
She met older people who ____ enjoyed bike riding and others who liked playing video games.
At her retirement complex, Regina joined a companionship group, ____ she was surprised to find that older people could still fall in love and suffer from broken hearts.
Her new friendships continued to grow stronger over the ____ couple of weeks, and she began to feel as if she were their peer.
As time went on, Regina ____ feeling guilty for deceiving them.
She decided to come clean about her real age to her two closest elderly friends, Susan and Charlotte, a week before the challenge was ____
She worried that they might feel betrayed after her confession, but they just laughed it off and shared some life tips with her to help her enjoy her ____ more.
At the end of the ____ Regina said,
“I don’t look at the elderly in the same way that I used ____ anymore.
I have ____ how ignorant I was.
I couldn’t ____ that old people are just like me.
Now I can look past their gray hair and wrinkles and see the young ____ inside them.
Instead of worrying about my looks fading, I’m now fully embracing the idea of ____ old.”
Trent’s Story
Before participating in this documentary, Trent had had very little interaction ____ elderly people except for his 77-year-old grandfather.
He enjoyed his day-to-day life without worry ____ thought it quite satisfying to live in his parents’ house.
____ the weekdays, Trent would spend his time working part-time at a restaurant.
On the weekends, he would play basketball or go shopping with ____ friends.
____ short, Trent had little ambition and little money saved up for the furture, but he didn’t care.
As he only lived in the ____ Trent never thought about getting old.
He just regarded the ____ as a strange tribe that he would never join.
Spending a month fully disguised as a 72-year-old man was ____ more life-changing than Trent could have ever imagined.
He could finally see for himself what it was like to live ____ a senior citizen in society.
Early in the experiment, Trent tried to get on a bus to ____ downtown.
Due to the special body suit and lenses, he ____ trouble climbing up the stairs of the bus.
Then a ____ waiting behind him started rushing him, expressing annoyance.
In his hurry to ____ onto the bus, Trent almost fell on the stairs.
He was astonished to see the disrespectful attitude toward old people ____ the way they were treated.
Later he visited the restaurant where he once worked, but he noticed ____ no one paid much attention to him.
People acted as if he ____ there.
Trent ____ to realize what it felt like to be invisible.
However, there were some brighter moments
However, there were ____ brighter moments that helped Trent have a more cheerful view of growing older.
When Trent took a short trip to ____ he encountered a delightful older couple―Andre, 78, and Eunice, 76―who were there to learn salsa dancing.
While having a conversation ____ them, Trent was impressed by the fact that they were still healthy and content with their lives.
The passion they still had for life inspired ____ to start making some huge changes in his life.
“I realized life was too short to just sit around and wait for ____ to happen to me,” he said.
Now that Trent knows how important it is to plan and save for the future, he ____ decided to find a more stable job and move out of his parents’ house.
Trent has also started to exercise regularly so that he can stay healthy ____ fully enjoy his golden years in the future.
Living as an older person was a hard experience for both ____ and Trent, but they consider it an invaluable one.
This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity helped them understand ____ only the physical changes that older people go through but also the way society treats them.
By walking in ____ else’s shoes, Regina and Trent were able to see that the elderly also enjoy life with passion.
____ the experience changed the way they conduct their lives.
They hope that this documentary will help raise awareness of the problems the elderly continue to face ____ help young people have a more positive view of growing older.