Before the visit to the old folk’s home began, I thought that it would be a drag because I cannot imagine myself interacting with people 3-4 times my age. The generation gap is huge and there will be no relatable content that I can share with them. Thus, I wasn’t really looking forward to visiting the old folks home because of the fear of not being able to interact with them effectively.
During-TRIP

When the elderly first entered the venue, I still had the thought of not being able to talk to them. However, when the elderlies finally settled in, some of them looked lonely and bored so I decided to approach them with attempts to interact. 

Although the first few attempts failed, when I first succeeded having a normal and constant conversation with an elderly, the inner me felt accomplished. I tried to keep the ball rolling, sparking conversations with different elderlies nearby. A simple greeting or questions such as ‘’have you eaten?’’ formulates conversations. When I see them laughing and smiling when I'm talking to them, it warms up my heart.

Moreover, during the games and singing performances, smiles started appearing on many other elderlies like they were really enjoying the programme.  After the programme ended, I still can see the smiling expressions lingering on the elderlies’ face like they had a lot of fun.
Post-Trip/ Reflection

After the programme, I felt extremely grateful for this trip because never would I imagine talking to someone much older than me and making them laugh. After this trip, I realised that senior citizens do not receive a lot of attention and love from their own families. Thus, the community has to put in effort to make these elderlies smile so that they would not feel left out of society.