After eight weeks being paired with youth, Wes and Angie Roberts have learned that the stresses on teenagers far outweigh what they experienced growing up half a century ago.
“The pressure to be attaining certain goals, social media, the constant deluge of news and celebrities and what you should look like — it’s too much,” Angie said.
“And so much homework for these kids,” Wes chimed in. “It’s shocking. It’s three to four hours a night.”
Wes wasn’t exaggerating. At the final meeting of Sages & Seekers — an intergenerational program by Wasatch County Library and the Live Like Sam Foundation that pairs adults over 60 (sages) with youth 13-18 (seekers) — Wes’ seeker, Emilia Charlton, detailed some of the stressors she’s experiencing as a high schooler.
“This is my third year voluntarily participating in Sages & Seekers. It’s also my third year not voluntarily participating in high school,” she said with a deadpan expression. “This is the year where we all supposedly get ‘junioritis,’ and you either see us crying and screaming on the floor in various locations around campus … (or) hanging out in Starbucks or some other place, like, I don’t know, behind the Walmart bins or something.”
The cherry on top of demanding Advanced Placement courses, the ACT and extracurricular activities is the expectation to figure out what to do with your life.
Monday nights at Sages & Seekers became a respite from the never-ending drudgery of high school for Charlton, in no small part thanks to her connection with Wes.
“The conversation somehow always went back to me, to how I was doing, how my day was, or any activities I was doing,” she told him. “I had a lot of fun talking to you, and even learning Scrabble — even though I had to learn it the hard way.”
Wes, who has twice participated in the program, said it means the world for teenagers to have an adult they can trust outside of family or school.
“I’m still in contact with my first (seeker). We still do lunch and we check in with each other,” he said. “She has a stressful home life, so I’m always encouraging her.”
Sages & Seekers originated in Massachusetts in 2009 when Elly Katz, a graphic designer, left her career to create a program to fight ageism.
Young adult librarian Brittnie Hecht brought the program to Park City Library in spring 2024 before rolling it out at Wasatch County Library that autumn.
Every Monday offers a new activity to foster connection, from game nights to skill-sharing.
Sages & Seekers begins with a “rapid chat” session where seekers are given one-on-one time with each sage and rank the top five people they’d most like to be paired with for the eight weeks. Then, Hecht and co-leader Jessica Parker, programs director at Live Like Sam, do the matchmaking.
Sage Annie McMullen instantly connected with shy seeker Brooke Miller over earrings.
“I know that you think the mortuary is calling,” McMullen teased Miller, “but as the weeks went by, I saw an artist unleashed with your beading, paintings and involvement in theater. I hope you continue to pursue all possibilities those interests may bring. With your talents, you can write your own story.”
Jax Goldberg shared many good times with his sage, Beth Fratkin, but it was especially impactful when Fratkin coached him after a rough college interview.
Additionally, Goldberg, who is Jewish, was ecstatic to learn Fratkin shared his faith. He said he’s only met a handful of Jewish people since moving to Wasatch County.
Seeker Aubry joined Sages & Seekers on a whim — her favorite impulsive decision she’s made “out of many bad ones,” she joked.
But she almost quit the program due to a family issue that arose after she signed up.
“Having this to do every week has helped me a lot more than I expected it to,” Aubry said, choking up. “It kept me social when all I wanted to do was go home and read and try to forget everything about my life.”
Meanwhile, seeker Crystal Luo found it valuable to hear sage Wendy Johnson’s high school experience with substance abuse.
“She showed me that my life is just barely beginning and that there’s so much more ahead of me and the future is not determined by every mistake I’m making right now,” she said.
“The purpose of the program is to break down walls or barriers between generations,” Luo continued. “I think that it’s done a good job at that. I don’t feel very awkward talking to people that are a lot older than me like I have in the past.”
Sages & Seekers reopens in April 2026. Prospective participants can fill out applications at livelikesam.org/sages-seekers.