Respecting Elders - Summary

Jacob McBride

English 101

Jim Irons

11/19/12
Respecting Your Elders And Those Who Have Come Before You

From an early age we have been taught to respect our elders and listen to what they have to say to us. They have lived longer than most any of us, putting blood, sweat and tears into everything they have done. They learned from experiences that some of us may never get the chance to experience or from some that we already have and have sought their guidance from. They teach and guide us so that we don’t make the same mistakes again and so that we can grow as a culture. There are people today who disregard the elderly and disrespect them as a show of resilience or even as simple as to being a rebellious punk. As a modern society we need to listen to the older generation and their words so that we can make a better future for younger generations.
Growing up I spent a lot of time around my grandparents and their friends who were elderly also. My grandpa was one of my first role models. He was a man’s man, working and toiling hard in the burning fields all day under the hot sun. After all his hard work he would always come pick my brother and I up from school just to babysit us. Being from the south and growing up in Texas he had a peculiar way in which he saw the world. He would tell my brother and I that no matter what we were planning to do in life he wanted us to get an education. My grandfather never knew how to read very well and only had as much as an elementary education. It was one of his biggest regrets and he understood the importance of having something that he didn’t have. Another one was for us to find a good job so that we could support our families and be able to make something of ourselves. He told us this because he had worked as a farm hand his entire life till the day he retired. He supported my mom, her siblings and my grandmother on just a farm hands wages. Along with this wisdom he shared and which would come in handy as my...