Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda...I Will

Now that I'm approaching my mid-50s, instead of shopping for orthodic devices or retirement homes, I'm looking for places of interest and new conquests.  I find that there are so many things I can think of that I'd like to do.  Things that when I was younger and stronger - I wish I had done.  My husband often says I should have been a lawyer, perhaps so. Sometimes I wonder what kind of a musician I could have been, or what about a pastry chef?  Sometimes I look at my daughters, one in her early 30s, the other nearly 25 and think, "If I knew then, what I know now..."


I had a conversation with a co-worker back in the 90s.  At the time I was a legal secretary and I shared with him the preposterous notion of going to back to school to become a lawyer at that age.  I was in my 30s then and he said to me, "So what? You'll just be an old lawyer - you're going to be an old something anyway, so why not be want you want to be?"  Yeah, philosophically he was right, but I couldn't wrap my brain around it.  At that time I only had a few college credits under my belt, I was married and had two young children so I abandoned the idea of ever becoming a lawyer.  Besides, I thought to myself, I'm not that committed.  Truthfully I wasn't so I have to interject that I've never been passionate about a career as a lawyer, I think I just liked being around all the law books, being exposed to the terminology and handling legal documents and the occasional privilege of delivering regulatory compliance documents to various State of Michigan agencies in Lansing, our capitol city.

A few years after having that conversation with my co-worker I completed a degree in Legal Administration from the University of Detroit.  I was hired as a legal assistant by the parent company of the organization I had been working for and kind of got the best of both worlds.  Needless to say I was paid significantly less than the attorneys - rightfully so, a least in most cases. Fortunately for me, my posts as legal secretary, then legal assistant fulfilled my need at the time.  So while I didn't go the full route by attending law school, obtaining a juris doctorate, state licensing and bar membership, I got just enough of a taste of a world I thought I wanted to be part of. 

But law is only one of my many interests.  As time goes on I find there are a lot of things that I'd like to do.  I'd like to learn to speak another language fluently - not for a job but just because.  I'd like to host my own television show, I want to write more books.  I also want to try my hand at being a playwright. I want to learn how to make a really good pie crust and yeast rolls from scratch. I want to travel to various parts of the world,  I'm excited by the knowledge that I CAN do all of these things if I choose to invest the time and other resources.  I want to be healthy, fit and beautiful like those women featured on the cover of Essence Magazine who are 40 and beyond - who knows, maybe someday my picture will grace the cover of a magazine! My age is not a roadblock to the things I desire to do after all. Hmmm, maybe I'll go back and dust off some of those dreams I tucked away because I thought I was too old. 

At age 95, Mrs. Ida Keeling is currently doing something she is very passionate about - and did not even begin to persue until she was in her 60s. You'll be pleasantly surprised when you learn what she did.  Click on the following link to a video of her inspiring story.

5 Words to Live By: Never, Never, Never Give Up