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Aging | Social Enterprises | Article | Volunteering
15 Feb 2024

Personal development with grey people: the lessons learnt

Sílvia Freitas Co-founder of the Cycling Without Age project in Portugal, project director at AMP. Together with a group of friends, she brought the first bike that would give birth to Cycling Without Age to Portugal, after meeting the founder, Ole Kasow, at an airport.
Personal development with grey people: the lessons learnt
The Pedalling Without Age project in Porto has been dedicated to cycling people with specific mobility needs around the city for five years.

Our main goal of reducing the social isolation of the elderly has already generated thousands of hours of offline conversation between young and old. We share some wise personal development tips that our passengers offer us while travelling, with a lot of wind in their hair:

  1. Sometimes it's only after retirement that you realise how much you loved working. Getting out the door in the morning, having goals, feeling the joy of being able to solve a problem, being useful.
  2. Getting older gives us the privilege of being masters of our time. Leaving at the time we want, going where we want and having no timetable for arriving.
  3. Sometimes people think that people who live alone are lonely. That's not always true.
  4. The less you move your body, the less your body wants to move. It's not good to sit still.
  5. Nowadays everything happens very quickly. Clothes wear out quickly, electrical appliances don't last, you change jobs a lot, you turn on all the taps. It's just splashes everywhere.
  6. When we're young, we don't even realise that we're going to miss the simple things in life later on. Going out for coffee, painting the front door every year.
  7. The hardest thing about living in an institution isn't living in a house that isn't your own. It's looking around and there not being anyone you've shared your past with.
  8. Younger people don't realise how much science has evolved, because they have no comparison. Before, life was much more difficult.
  9. People worry a lot about their faces, but when you get older it's your feet and teeth that you need most. It's important to look after them while you're young.
  10. Real life is in the villages, in the mountains, in the streams, in the well water.
  11. Cities now have beautiful parks, full of trees, beautiful plants and hiding places to date or even make love.
  12. Nobody remembers before they die that they wish they'd had more money.
  13. Anyone can be an artist, painting, singing, gardening. Sometimes we only discover that artist later in life.

Until the next ride!

Sílvia Freitas

Founder of the Pedalling Without Age Project Porto

Website: https://www.pedalarsemidadeporto.pt/