It astounds me as to how many of my peers feel old. I don’t relate to that at all. In fact, I recently celebrated my 65th birthday. While some of you may think, “Oh, she’s just a kid”, others – like my kids – think I’m older than dirt! They actually call my friends, ‘the old people!’
What is remarkable to me though is that I cannot connect to what 65 is supposed to be. It really is a matter of perspective, isn’t it? How I choose to see myself, is just that… my choice. In truth, I don’t see myself as any age. I’m just me; the same me I’ve been since I can remember. I do not define myself by any age and never have. In fact, the Savvy Senior Mission Statement was born from my resistance to aging. Every year I was old enough to have a past and young enough to have a future. And that sums up how I feel about every age.
I had my first son at 37 and my second was born when I was 41. The classroom moms were all ten to fifteen years younger than I and yet we were in the same life stage. Age was actually quite irrelevant. We were all dealing with the same issues of bedtime, diapers, homework and after-school activities. It leveled the age-playing-field.
Now, in my 65th year, I am embarking on a whole new adventure. Leaving a relationship of almost ten years, I am moving from a 31-year love relationship with Broward County, Florida to new territory in Boca Raton. Some would be devastated at this change. Not me! I see it as a blank page, ready for me to imprint with a whole new life with new experiences and accomplishments. I can’t wait to spread my wings and see where the wind takes me. I’m not entirely sure what awaits me in Palm Beach County. I just know that it’s going to expand my world in ways I can’t even imagine right now.
How do you experience change? Do you hide from it? Do everything you can to avoid it? Or do you embrace it with all the promise the future can hold? Change offers the opportunity to start new; to look at your own self from a different perspective. Change can mean new friends and new opportunities to learn and grow. Of course it can be scary and challenging. Anything new has those elements. But rather than focus on the scary, concentrate on the adventure. You never know what lies on the other side of change.
Be a Savvy Senior. Consider change as a movement forward in your life. No matter what that change may be, grab hold of it and ride it for all it’s worth!
