Living a Full Life

Like most children, when I was a young girl growing up in Viola, the idea that I would ever be 30 years old was a concept as foreign to me as traveling to China.  I mean, seriously, as if I would ever be THAT old!  

Now, I’m several years past 30, and I look back and wonder how I could have ever been that young.  It’s hard to remember the young girl I once was, a girl whose life was significantly altered every time she was given a new Barbie doll.  Although at this point I’m much closer to 70 than 17, it’s still hard to imagine my 70-year-old self.  Will I be someone who mourns that my best years are behind me and sits around knitting and complaining about ‘kids these days’, or will I be essentially who I am now but with an older body and hopefully a little more wisdom under my belt? 

Fortunately, I’ve had a very wonderful opportunity in recent months to begin answering that question.  Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a 79-year-young Marcia.  We were having a rather casual talk when she mentioned that, for her 70th birthday, she had gone skydiving.  Of course, I had to know more, so I made time to sit down and hear more about Marcia and her life of adventure.  

It turns out that during an era where women were expected to model themselves after June Cleaver, Marcia was busy taking flying lessons and becoming a pilot of a charter plane.  In fact, every time I thought to myself that this woman could not have led a more interesting life, she gave me another reason to be impressed.  

She grew up in Brooklyn, lived in Germany, and has literally traveled all over the world.  With her longtime companion Bob, she has been to China, toured Europe, and gone on safari in Africa, to name a few.  Besides flying and skydiving, she has also participated in ballooning and aerial gliding and still wants to try zip-lining.  And what is really incredible to me is that many of these things were done after she became a ‘senior citizen’.  

Even as Marcia tells me about all the exciting places she’s been and the interesting things she’s done, she is still quick to mention that I should really be talking to so-and-so, who, in her words, “has really lived an interesting life”.  I can’t help but smile when she says this, since she herself mentioned having once had lunch with Amelia Earhart’s sister, but even to some degree she is right; she is not the only one who has had life experiences that have helped shape who they are now.  

Another woman I chatted with, Winnifred, shared that for her 87th birthday, she went on a cruise to Alaska.  Not only did she have her first helicopter ride, but she also took a dog sled ride.  As she described it to me, the helicopter ride was smooth, but the dog sled was bumpy.  Sort of analogous to other things in life, but I diverge. 

The point is, Winnifred did not let the fact that she was 87 at the time deter her from gleaning adventure and joy from life.  Like Marcia, she had opportunities to travel the world and at one point lived in Kenya and India.  And also like Marcia, her body may not be what it once was, but her mind and her spirit are both full of youthful exuberance for life and open to adventures that might be just around the corner. 

There are so many others whose stories I hope to hear in the coming months, but after talking with Marcia and Winnifred, I started thinking about what they had in common and what the keys to staying young at heart are.  So I began asking, sort of an informal survey if you will.  

It’s easy to see an elderly person and think that they are too out of touch with the world to offer any wisdom or entertaining conversation.  After all, some of them are still using flip phones.  But when you sit down and really engage them in a conversation, you will find a person with a life filled with adventure, broken hearts, big dreams, and disappointments.  Not so different from a person of, say, 30 years old.  And while their bodies are no longer able to skip rope, their minds are sharp and their hearts still young.  

For myself, I couldn’t help thinking about how much time I’ve wasted letting the mundane drudgery of everyday life steal my joy and fascination with the world. Working with seniors has given me a renewed desire to live life to the fullest so that when I’m 70 years old, I will be able to share my adventures traveling the globe with someone who might ask about them. However, I guarantee there will not be any skydiving in my stories!