Opportunity or as I Like to Call it Yippee Skippee

My stint in the Peace Corps at 63, Entrepreneurism & now just doing whatever I damn well please

I never really thought about what I would feel like when I was older. I had goals that I wanted to achieve, and I thought about decades and what I would like to accomplish in the next ten years but not how I would feel or look or what I would think about.

There really isn’t any way to know how you are going to feel or be or what you are going to be doing until you are in the thick of it. So I am not sure where scientists, doctors and other people we seem to trust without question, get off telling us what it will be like.

When you get here and want to report back then do that. Otherwise, maybe not so much.

Now that I am here and in the thick of it, I am wowed by all of the possibilities. I feel like a kid in a candy store or for me a chips, nuts and all things salty store.

This is the best time of my life. I am loving it every day, all the time. If I was a feel guilty person then this would be the time, but I flushed guilt down the toilet and don’t miss it. Sent it out for fertilizer. Just content and excited and no guilt or remorse.

I adopted my daughters in my early forties so when other people were celebrating grandchildren, I was changing diapers and caring for my sick mother, I was part of that group of people who were caregivers for the young and the old at the same time. And I was a single mother for many of those years. Not a lot of time to think about the future. But it did slip in there in the song of a bird or a full moon rising.

Then I got this tiny window of opportunity in my early 60s, after divorce, a master’s degree, working at a stress up the yinyang job (teaching), moving across the country with a menagerie of 4 cats and 4 dogs and …well I am out of breath just remembering it. Madness.

I had set out the decade of my 60s to be one of excellence. Do what I was doing and do it better. Take on new opportunities, stretch beyond what I already knew, jump off the cliff, burn the ships, take no prisoners.

I set out to challenge the norms of what was possible.

Now here is a secret in case you are thinking of doing the same. Keep it to yourself. Just saying. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I learned to keep my mouth shut after I announced to some friends that I wanted to go in the Peace Corps. Who knew so many people wanted to tell me how to live my life and what was right for me or question my sanity? And these were my friends.

Then they realized I wasn’t going to listen to them, so they asked me every few days if I was gone yet or when I was going. They didn’t know what to do with me in this new phase of my life. Should I invite her to the party? Is she still in town? Did we say good-bye? Is she back yet?

It took a year from the time I signed up until I shipped off. That is a lot of time for friends to be in confusion and for me to have to go over everything over and over when it was clear they didn’t really give a crap. Just go already.

I was 63 when I went in and 65 when I got out. I highly recommend it.

My advice is to plan and get ready and make arrangements for your future in stealth mode. Maybe buy a lot of black clothing and a black pull over cap with the eye holes. Get a second phone. Learn to write in code. Mysteriously drive off every Thursday and be gone all day. Sleep out in the yard. Do weird shit.

Then when you actually do what you want to do, they will be so relieved that no one will say a thing.

That stint in the Peace Corps set me on a path of lifelong learning, love of travel and adventure, willingness to challenge my assumptions about everything, not to take myself too seriously, openness to change, appreciation for things and gratitude for a wonderful life.

That was my opportunity. And I took it. And I keep taking opportunities. I tried being an entrepreneur for three years and lost a lot of money. What I learned is invaluable. Now I am writing a book. And will soon launch a speaking career. I also love painting with watercolors and cooking and gardening and meeting new people.

So, what is your opportunity and will you take it? The world needs you. Maybe we can meet up?

#disruptaging