I know most of my readers will agree – Aging isn’t for Sissies! Every time I realize I am in my 76th year, it astounds me. How did that happen so quickly?
Memories
How I wish I had kept a journal or a diary. For us septuagenarians, there are no cellphone photo recordings of every event, no Facebook memories going back decades, and no email records. Sure, I remember key events, but not every detail; there are many blank spots and missing elements. The other day, I tried remembering the last name of my first real boyfriend, Teddy, who taught me to shift in his TR-3! The engine’s roar alerted my mother when we entered the town limits, or so she said.
I also cannot recall the last name of someone I dated in the 1980s. I even asked friends who knew him, but they couldn’t retrieve his name either. Sorry, Keith from Kearny!
But it’s not only events or conversations from the 80s that escape me; something I did just a few weeks ago may already be forgotten. You know that look when your husband tells you that he told you that yesterday?
Before or After?
There’s a new game that the NY Times called Flashback: Your Weekly History Quiz, which makes me feel like I am trying to remember when I did what. My career, spanning more than 60 years, took many twists and turns in unrelated industries. Did I work for the incentive travel company before or after the Hawaiian travel firm? Did I ski in Austria before or after the ski trip to Utah? Do you get my drift?
Good Times
There were plenty of good times, and a few made it into a photo album. Being an International Flight Attendant in my early 20s was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. This summer, I am getting together with two women I went through training with back in 1969! There will be photos of then and now!
I will also spend a week in Montana with Thora, one of my first roommates in New York in the early 70s. We both lived in the Boston area several years later, but I haven’t seen Thora since we met up in Montreal for a fantastic few days nine years ago. I forgot I had gone with red hair for a while!
Someday, I may scan them or take them to a service that digitizes them for me.
Don’t Compare Your Insides to Others’ Outsides
Perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned the older I get is not to compare my insides to others’ outsides. We all have our fears, uncertainties and shortcomings, but nonetheless, if we’re still here at 76, it’s a good thing.