We’ve all been forced to go to our grandparents’ house when we were kids, and I can bet that you were watching the clock most of the time you were there, huh? I admit I did that nearly every time, and the times I did not, there was no clock in sight.
When you are a kid all you want to do is be entertained and distracted. Talking with your grandparents just isn’t on that list. This was the case for me, but in growing up, I developed an interest in what they had to say.
I came to realize that grandparents are full of wisdom, and in a way they are like omniscient beings with all they have experienced in their lifetimes. After all the little small talk you do when you first get there, grandparents tell stories, and those stories have meaning.
At first the stories just seem like an average day in their lives, but the way grandparents tell them adds a little lesson of what they have and you should learn from the experience. And that is what life should be about, learning a lesson from every experience.
Grandparents ooze wisdom and the more we are around them, the more mature we get and the more wisdom we gain each time we see them.
After discovering what they had to offer, I began to take advantage of anytime I could stop by and talk, even if it was just for a couple minutes -- and I suggest everyone does the same.
One lesson I learned from my grandfather came from a tiny little experience, but the way he told it hyped it up to be a big lesson, and it was.
He said that he once saw a young man and woman get breakfast and the gentleman did not open up the door for the woman but let her open it instead. My grandfather opened the door for my grandmother and then proceeded to have breakfast.
When the young couple left, my grandfather said the young woman approached my grandparents and thanked my grandfather for opening the door for my grandmother, and that even if my grandmother did not say anything, she definitely noticed it.
John Wooden said, “It’s the little details that are vital, little things make big things happen,” and that could not be anymore true in this situation. That little experience proved to be a huge lesson about the small things in life.
The little things are foundational and support the big things in life. And while you should not stress too much about the little things, you should definitely take into consideration the impact they have on others and even yourself.
The bottom line is that our grandparents are filled with wisdom and all they want to do is talk to us. By talking with them, we learn these lessons that make our lives better.
As Generation-Y, we might not have that much time left with our grandparents and going over to see them even for five minutes will make their whole day, maybe even week! With this new perspective on what they have to offer, I hope people start to realize what they actually have and take advantage of it before it is gone.
Jack Peter Corrao | Elite.
