Senior Chronicle #3

Reinventing Ourselves

Image via cre8tivesoul.com

When I was 70, I decided to change my life.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve done something like this. I did it at 23, when a mom with three preschoolers became a fulltime college student. I did it at 45, when a university vice-president and professor became a fulltime writer—and capped that a year later by marrying (again) and moving to the country.

Whew.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” a worried friend asked me as I closed my office door behind me. “No,” I said. “I don’t have a clue.”

It was true.  The I who answered her friend’s question had no idea how high a cliff she was stepping off. But that was fine with the I who woke up the next morning, still in freefall but feeling new, renewed, eager, energetic, creative. I had earned lifetime tenure and a guaranteed income, and writing promised neither tenure nor a living wage. Still, I was at midlife and time was my friend. If I fell on my face, I had half a lifetime left to pick myself up and start over.