I was introduced to Spongebob and all of his friends the moment my uncle bought me a massive pillow of the sea-sponge. I would sit in front of the TV with my eyes glued to the screen. My laughter would bounce off the walls. Even now when I rewatch some of the good episodes, it doesn’t take long before my side starts to ache from all the laughing.

Among all of the characters and their interesting lives, two of them really stand out to me. Not because they are the funniest or that they are intriguing, but of how boring they are. Mermaid Man and Barnacle boy top this list. They are two elderly superheroes. They have tea, play lame cards games, take long naps in front of the TV and always complain about how they either can’t hear or of the crippling pain in their backs.  In fact, every old person is portrayed this way in the entire show, doing typical things old people do. Some of these are using dentures, baking cookies and chasing young ones with a trembling staff. If you were to take everyone else out, you will have a show full of old farts and hags who have absolutely nothing to do other than snoring their way to heaven or baking cookies, forgetting that some of them left their teeth in a jar somewhere. I realize this is fiction, but it just shows what society truly portrays about old people. It shows that they hold zero potential, to something more than life as a frail, old thing living a very dull life of eating, complaining and sleeping. Having the next most exciting thing for them is becoming nothing more than a lifeless mass of dust, to be only scattered by the wind and be lost forever.

    I consider myself lucky that my grandparents do not live this reality. Their lives are full of vibrancy and colour. My grandmother is 79, and my grandfather is 73, yet it seems like every year they are somewhere else in the world. From Dubai to the Caribbean and US, they bounce around only to bounce around some more with no sign of stopping. Of course, they are not invincible, and yes they do typical old people things from time to time. They are old after all.

When my grandmother and I decided to have a movie night, I thought she would like one of those feel-good Disney movies, instead, she prefers action movies. The scarier and bloodier, the better apparently. But besides movies and travelling places, she and I would have tea together. We would set up in the veranda, hold our teacups, stick out our pinkie fingers and sip. We sit listening to night sounds of the crickets out in the field being drowned out by the rumble of the miniature waterfall as it pours into the indoor fish pond a few feet beside us. We would chirp away like a bunch of perched birds. No matter what we talked about, she would always ask, “How is your mother today? How is your brother with his job? Is  he liking it?” Now, this is understandable, but what amazes me is that she would start telling me about people who I’ve never met in my life and always worries about them. Showing me how it is to carry others in your heart and care for them.

While I don’t see my grandfather often as I do with my grandmother, I know him well enough to realize he has never fit the grey mould, and he will never will. As a bishop, he loves to preach. Whenever I listen to him he loves to use his voice as a way to capture his audience’s attention. As if he is spinning a story, he would start off with a funny joke to break the ice, then lower his voice to a faint whisper. Once he has us at the edge of our seats, he would raise his voice again, hearing it echo the very vibration from the deepness of his throttling throat. When he isn’t delivering a speech, he has this quietness about him, a calm vibe of the sea, one that extinguishes the heat and tension of the room with ease. This is an ability that I strive to have one day.

My grandparents have travelled the world, met people, preached, and made relationships that will last a lifetime. They have their quirks and they are the living and breathing evidence that the elderly are not boring as society has painted them to be. Proving that they have the potential to be more, elders can inspire future generations with the values they teach through their lives, by setting an example. Because let's be honest with ourselves, we would be lost without them and become nothing but empty shells walking around with no established values nor moral codes to live by. While they may be ending their final chapter, we are only beginning our story, looking at the future ahead, wondering where life will take us. But it is up to us if we want to include them or not, as influential, wise people, not a bunch of unproductive background characters in a TV show.