Sixty weeks from today is my 60th birthday. Additionally, some other significant milestones will be commemorated during this time. I’ve wanted to get back to writing regularly for a while and decided to use this an excuse to create a small legacy project, Sixty Weeks to 60. It will be weekly reflections on my life: some of my most cherished memories, things my mom always said, lessons learned, what I wish I knew 35 years ago, and certainly some opinion pieces.
This project is for me and for my daughter (when at some point in the future when she cares to read anything I’ve published lol). Oh, how I wish now I had something like this from my own mother (either or both)! But I’m hoping you might enjoy it too. I’m hoping for my female friends of a similar age that this collection will resonate with you. Maybe even inspire you to write your own story, or at the very least reflect on how far you’ve come.
It is said that “youth is wasted on the young,” well I also think experience is wasted on the old. By the time we have all (okay, many) of the answers, we stopped giving a f—! And as much as we hope younger generations will learn from our experiences, we realize that they too must learn their own lessons and reach their own conclusions. No one truly understands the perspective of another until they’ve been there.
Looking back on my views of the world when I was in my teens or twenties or when I was first married or a young mom, I shake my head. We think we have it all figured out. Our views reflect our experiences until the point when some curve ball, tragedy, or pleasant surprise changes our understanding of how the world and life works. We suddenly realize we had it all wrong. That can be difficult to admit.
Now, I see the times of greatest growth and personal achievement were created through curiosity, trying something new, accepting challenges, embracing change, taking risks, and being open to new ideas. Being willing to accept failure consequently is also significant. Among my regrets is not doing more of that.
Learning to embrace those things in my second 30 years, helped me reinvent myself when things in and out of my control shaped my journey in unimaginable ways. Since my 30th birthday, I found my other family. I became a runner, a fundraiser, and a mom. I coped with loss, moved 800 miles from everything that was familiar, and remarried.
Taylor Swift published her Thirty Things I learned before I turned 30 five years ago this month. While she had a few things figured out that took me a little longer, I will add that we never stop learning or growing. Or shouldn’t. Or can’t. Even when we try to turn ourselves off in some way and maintain the status quo, the universe has other ideas.
Ten years ago today was cold and gray on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. I sat in my office ready to begin another day as a Chief Development Officer. My phone rang. It was my doctor calling with the results of a biopsy. “It’s cancer,” she said. My life now looks nothing like it did that day. For that, I am sometimes sad, but mostly grateful.
Did you really think this wasn’t going to include a fundraiser? It’s me. Of course it is! Over the course of the next 60 weeks, I am hoping to raise $6000 for the children of Mercy Home for Boys & Girls (that’s just $100 a week!). To learn more about Mercy Home and my why, please visit my fundraising page. Thank you.