HippytoWiki fan alert! This will be the last installment of Decade-dense for the time being. I've simply run out of decades. I hope you enjoyed it. My next post will be something slightly self-indulgent, but definitely fun and thought-provoking.
OK...so getting older has its downside...the weird neck flesh (requiring a larger collection of turtlenecks), the crows feet and smile lines, and the inability to drop 5 pound in 48 hours by subsisting on Tab and Kashi. But with four decades of life also comes tremendous wisdom, pespective, and self-confidence.
I started that decade as an over-worked, unhappy, unhealthy corporate suit and ended it as a re-energized (albeit poorer) entrepreneur. Along with my big-brand baggage, I shed about 20 pounds and gained muscle mass (which I've been told is a good thing). My kids got older and I got my own life back. Whoever says that working mothers can "have it all" has never been a working mother. At any one time, you'll be doing something badly. It's just a fact.
We all survived the Y2K frenzy (when our computers, phones, and banks were all supposed to crash). Lots of media hype but no crisis. The bank crash did actually happen, but it was unrelated to a date on a calendar.
I organized a 30-year high school reunion, which was fun -- but have no overwhelming desire to do it again for at least another 30 years. Now that we have Facebook, the live reunion thing is not an imperative. (Plus, Facebook can easily hide the signs of aging and lunacy.)
I lived fairly calmly through my daughters' teen years and one round of the college application process. It was very different from my own high school years. Although I am hardly a helicopter parent, I did spend an entire weekend with my older daughter, helping her with college forms. (I have no recollection of anyone doing that with me...kids of my era were totally on their own...I even schlepped my own trunk and bags to Michigan and set-up my room without a group trek to buy bedding and toiletries, which is now a mandatory parental responsibility).
Starting my own business at the age of 48 was either incredibly daring or incredibly masochistic (or some of both). It's like learning to walk all over again. I made lots of mistakes and fell on my face often. I learned from most of them. And I still totally love going to work every day. I could never say that about my time on "the dark side." When I left corporate America, it was at the highest level I wanted to achieve. I had the big office, the big staff, the big expense account. But I also had the endless meetings, the endless politics, and the endless risk-aversion. When I walked out, I was truly done. No regrets. (I do, however, occasionally miss the concept of a fully-paid business trip to the French countryside for a global marketing meeting...sigh!)
Turning 50, albeit a bit traumatic,was viewed (or rationalized) as the beginning of the second half of my life. Nana Molly and Grandpa Marty lived to almost 100 and I'm planning on doing the same. And perhaps I'll still be blogging (and you'll still be reading) about what I learned during the next 50 years.
And I sure hope there's another Worlds Fair at some point. I never got a cool personalized embroidered hat! That's one thing I regret in my life!
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