When I was 23 the world was one giant adventure. I didn’t mount my horse hoping I wouldn’t fall off and break my wrist, I mounted my horse ready to gallop full-throttle across a pasture that could very well be hiding the gopher holes that kept me riding at a controlled trot. I don’t remember being afraid of anything at 23. Nothing could hurt me, and if it did I would heal.
I haven’t become a fearful old lady – yet. But I find myself considering things that once seemed unnecessary, like getting flu shots, and throwing away jars in the fridge that are two or three years past their expiration date.
Not only do we tend to heed the warnings we ignored in our youth, we begin to realize how little we know about this new generation of fashion, dialogue and TECHNOLOGY! Most of all, technology. If I didn’t have a fifteen year old daughter my IPod would still be resting safely in its box next to my nightstand after three years of ownership. Like my Personal Digital Assistant, which has not assisted me in any way since my husband bought it for me when Palm Pilots first hit the marketplace, I’m still waiting for it to get out of its box, sense my needs and start assisting.
I don’t know why we become more fearful with age. Maybe because by now we have known kids who put their eyes out when they ran with sticks. We’ve seen friends suffer from dog bites, car accidents, food poisoning, pneumonia, and all the things we thought our parents were making up to keep us from having fun. And the new fashions, dialogue and technology came after we had spent years feeling totally in control of a lifestyle that appeared to be permanent. What a cruel surprise change is.
Well, the surprise is over. WE know it’s happening to us and we can do something about it. We can face our fears. While I don’t advocate galloping full-throttle across a pasture or eating the mayonnaise with the green tinge to it, we can do things that will keep us from pulling deeper and deeper inside ourselves, fearing more and more of the new and unknown.
My friend, Lynne learned to fly at 54. Eileen went back to school to get her doctorate in Instructional Design. I’m not ready to commit to something as ambitious as they did, but, something as insignificant as learning to program your DVR can open doors that may lead to exciting adventures- such as buying something on ebay or customizing your ring tone.
We want to hear about your fears.Tell us and we’ll find someone to help you overcome them. We’ll teach you how to download tunes to your IPod or send your kids a text message. It will convince them you’re suffering from yet another mid-life crisis.
Read Lynne’s story below and find something that will start you on the road to facing your fears!
Where Is Your Thrill?
How often do any of us find an activity that gets our adrenaline going and pulse racing along with a strong dose of fear? From time to time you hear of some eighty year old jumping from a plane (with parachute) and gliding through the clouds or bungee jumping from a building. Why at 70 or 80 are these people doing this? Why are they risking a broken hip or broken anything at that age? They’ve lived their lives, experienced a multitude of experiences, come on, give it up! Go sit down, be content with your past and veg for the next decade or so.
Hurray for these courageous people! I believe they do it for a couple of very sound reasons. First, because they feel time is running out and it is best do that activity now or forget it. Secondly, I’m wondering if they want that rush again to feel alive, to be excited or even scared.
Up until several months ago, I just went along with my little life, working, cooking, occasional nights out with friends, just a normal existence. I would do things for myself that I enjoy, play golf, dance, travel and every couple of weeks pampered myself with a manicure, pedicure, and once in a while, completely indulged myself with a massage. That existence changed drastically when my brother asked me if I would be interested in taking co-pilots lessons so he could fly longer distances and have someone to take over piloting when he was tired, or heaven forbid, something happened to him while in flight. Gladly I went along with this with no expectations other than being able to spend time with him and enjoy each others company. I have always loved to fly, commercially, and honestly had no fear about going forth with this plan. My biggest concern was that with hardly any estrogen left in this body, I couldn’t retain or learn anything new.
To my surprise, this experience has been exhilarating, exciting and downright frightening. It is reminiscent of looking down the side of mountain when I learned how to ski and thinking to myself this is way too steep I can’t possibly get down there. Or the fear I felt on the roller coaster that turns you upside down through a loop. I forgot how great it feels to get that adrenaline rush.
Each time my lesson is done I feel so incredibly alive!! My heart is racing; I’m giddy with excitement and can’t wait until the next time. I find it absolutely thrilling to control this small twin-engine miracle. Oddly it also seems to be somewhat freeing. Of what I’m not quite sure, but I do know that it has been a joy to revisit this overwhelming emotion.
I feel now I understand the thrill seekers, applaud their courage and hope that some of you try a new experience, something kind of scary for you, to get that blood flowing again, feel alive and exhilarated.
We need to keep finding new and exciting adventures no matter what our age. Let’s face it, at some point our health will be an issue and taking full advantage of our good health while we still have time, seems to be a pretty good idea.
Good for Lynne! That is quite a feat. My fears are a little more on the appearance side: I would love to change my hairstyle and just put together a whole NEW style but am afraid of looking "wierd" or out-of-sync. I love all of the cute clothes but at my age it's hard to know what I can get away with.
Posted by: Rita | October 30, 2006 at 03:53 PM