Try as we might, we cannot stay young forever. Although this is a truth everyone knows, the thought of becoming old is usually the furthest thing from our minds. That's why we rarely pay attention to the physical changes that make everyday life challenging for the elderly or the financial difficulties they may experience after retirement. Many of us consider these problems irrelevant to our lives, so we have little understanding of What it means to be old Regina Martin, 27, and Trent Bowman, 34, participated in a TV documentary called Switching Ages, where they transformed into elderly people for one month. They learned to walk and talk like people in their seventies and Spent five hours every morning applying make up to appear older. They also wore heavy body suits, contact lenses that impaired their vision, fake teeth, and gray wigs. However, these impressive disguises were only a small part of the transformation they would experience.

Regina Martin has been a passionate dance instructor for the past three years. Although she is still a few years away from turning 30, Regina is starting to feel even more pressure to retain her looks. She obsessively takes care of her body and always eats healthy food. She has a strong fear of her youth disappearing and feels uncomfortable around old people, to the point where she is unwilling to visit her 81-year-old grandmother. On the first day, Regina stared at he transformed self in disbelief and sighed, "This wrinkled face doesn't look nice." She was sent to a tiny flat in a retirement complex, where she endured solitude and adapted to living alone. Regina worked at a grocery store, initially reluctant to talk to the elderly, thinking they would be boring. However, she soon found it very enjouable to talk with them, meeting older people who rode bikes and played video games. She joined a companionship group and was surprised to see older people still falling in love and having heartbreaks. As her friendships grew, Regina felt guilty for deceiving them and confessed her real age to Susan and Charlotte, who laughed and shared some life tips with her to help her enjoy her youth more. At the end, Regina realized how wrong she was about the elderly, saying, "I couldn't see that old people are just like me. Now I can look past their gray hair and wrinkles and see the young people inside them. Instead of worrying about my looks fading, I embrace the idea of growing old."

Before participating in this documentary, Trent had had very little interaction with elderly people except for his 77-year-old grandfather. He enjoyed his day-to-day life without worry and thought it quite satisfying to live in his parents' house. During the weekdays, Trent would spend his time working part-time at a restaurant. On the weekends, he would play basketball or go shopping with his friends. In short, Trent had little ambition and little money saved up for the future, but he didn't care. As he only lived in the present, Trent never thought about getting old. Spending a month fully disguised as a 72-year-old man was much more life-changing than Trent could have ever imagined. He could finally see for himself what it was like to live as a senior citizen in society. Early in the experiment, Trent struggled to board a bus due to his body suit and lenses, and a person behind him rushed him, showing annoyance. Nearly falling, Trent was astonished by the disrespect toward the elderly and the way they were treated. Later he visited the restaurant where he once worked but people acted as if he were not there. Trent started to realize what it felt like to be invisible. However, a brighter moment came when he met an old but healthy couple, Andre and Eunice, learning salsa dancing in Colombia. Their passion for life inspired Trent to make big changes. Now that Trent knows how important it is to plan and save for the future, he has decided to find a more stable job, move out of his parents' house and exercise regularly. Living as an older person was a hard experience for both Regina and Trent, but they consider it an invaluable one. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity helped them understand not only the physical changes that older people go through but also the way society treats them. By walking in someone else's shoes, Regina and Trent were able to see that the elderly also enjoy life with passion. Moreover, the experience changed the way they conduct their lives. They hope that this documentary will help raise awareness of the problems the elderly continue to face and help young people have a more positive view of growing older.

In her room, facing an open window, there was a comfortable armchair. She sank into it, weighed down by physical exhaustion that seemed to seep into her very soul. She could see the tops of trees outside, alive with the energy of spring. The air was filled with the fresh scent of rain. In the street below, a peddler was calling out his wares. She could faintly hear the notes of a distant song, and countless sparrows chirped in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky visible through the clouds that had piled up in the west. She sat with her head thrown back against the chair's cushion, almost completely still, except for the occasional sob that rose in her throat, shaking her like a child who has cried themselves to sleep and continues to sob in their dreams. She was young, with a fair and calm face that showed signs of having been repressed, yet also a certain strength. But now her eyes held a dull stare, focused on one of those patches of blue sky. It wasn't a reflective gaze but more like a suspension of thought. Something was coming to her, and she waited for it, fearfully. What was it? She didn't know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, and the colors that filled the air.

Her chest began to rise and fall rapidly. She was starting to recognize this thing approaching her, and she tried to push it away with her will, but her efforts were as weak as her thin, white hands would have been. When she finally gave in, a small whisper escaped her lips: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror left her eyes, replaced by a sharp and bright gaze. Her heart beat quickly, and the blood rushing through her body made her feel warm and relaxed. She didn't stop to question whether this joy she felt was monstrous or not. She knew that when she saw the kind, gentle hands folded in death, and the face that had only ever looked at her with love, now lifeless and gray, she would cry again. But she looked beyond that painful moment and saw a long stretch of years ahead that would be hers completely. No one would live those years for her; she would live them for herself. There would be no strong will pushing against hers, no one trying to force their own desires onto her as people often do, believing they have the right to control another person. Yet, she had loved him—sometimes. But often, she had not. Did it even matter? What did love, that unsolved mystery, mean when compared to the newfound sense of self and independence she now recognized as the most powerful force within her? Free! Body and soul free! she kept whispering to herself.

Meanwhile, Josephine was kneeling outside the closed door, pleading to be let in. Louise, open the door! Please, open the door—you'll make yourself sick." Go away. I'm not making myself sick. No, she was filling herself with a deep sense of life from the open window. Her imagination was running wild, thinking about the days that lay ahead. She breathed a quick prayer, hoping life would be long. Finally, she got up and opened the door to her sister's persistent requests. There was a feverish sense of triumph in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her sister's waist, and together they went down the stairs. Richards was waiting for them at the bottom. Just then, someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard, slightly travel-worn, calmly carrying his suitcase and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident and didn't even know there had been one. He stood in shock at Josephine's loud scream and at Richards' quick attempt to block him from his wife's view. But Richards was too late. When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.

South Koreans flocked to bookstores on Friday and crashed websites in a frenzy to snap up copies of novelist Han Kang's work in her home country, after her unexpected win of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. However, the author herself was keeping out of the limelight. The country's largest bookstore chain, Kyobo Book Centre, said sales of her books rocketed on Friday, with stocks almost immediately selling out and likely to be in short supply. This is the first time a Korean has received a Nobel Prize in Literature, so I was amazed, said Yoon Ki-heon, a 32-year-old visitor at a bookstore in Seoul. South Korea had a poor achievement in winning Nobel Prizes, so I was surprised that a writer of non-English books, in Korean, won such a big prize." After Thursday's announcement, some bookstore websites could not be accessed due to heavy traffic. Out of Kyobo's current 10 bestsellers, nine were Han's books on Friday morning. Han's father, well-regarded author Han Seung-won, said the translation of her novel The Vegetarian, her major international breakthrough, led to her winning the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 and now the Nobel. My daughter's writing is very delicate, beautiful, and sad, Han Seung-won said. Han's other books address painful chapters of South Korean history, including Human Acts, which examines the 1980 massacre of civilians by the military in Gwangju. Another novel, We Do Not Part, looks at the fallout of the 1948-1954 Jeju massacre, when one in ten of the island's population was killed in an anti- communist purge. I hope souls of the victims and survivors can be healed from pain and trauma through her book, said Kim Chang-beom, head of an association for the bereaved families of the Jeju massacre. Park Gang-bae, a director at a foundation supporting Gwangju massacre victims, said he was jubilant and moved by her win. The protagonists in her book are people we meet and live with every day, so this is deeply moving, Park said. Han's father told reporters on Friday that she may continue to shun the limelight, giving no separate comments or interviews since Thursday's win. She said given the fierce Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine wars and people dying every day, how could she celebrate and hold a joyous press conference? her father said. Han Kang received news of her win about 10 to 15 minutes before the announcement and was so surprised that she thought it might be a scam at one point.