Today marks a transition for me. It is my what I have been calling my Medicare birthday (65), which means I am eligible under any definition of “senior” for discounts! Having been in college at the time the expression “Don’t trust anyone over thirty,” was coined, it is amazing to have reached more than twice that age and believe myself still to be, among other things, quite trustworthy. I retired last May and my reinvention of myself is going well. I am happy and healthy, although I have lived longer than either of my parents did, and it is sobering to realize how much life they too must have felt still lay in front of them. I take nothing for granted and am grateful every day. Though I can’t ask for more from life, I will happy to take as many more experiences and as much more time as it has to offer.
A lot of my reinvention these days is tied up with my role as an Enrichment Lecturer on Silversea Cruises, which I am able to do a lot more of now that I am not constrained by the school year. Here I am celebrating New Year’s Eve last year, in Acapulco Bay, to the most extravagant fireworks I have ever seen. This year Dan and I will be in Phuket, Thailand on Christmas Day and at sea celebrating the birth of 2015, following two days in Yangon, Myanmar (the former Rangoon, Burma)
I wish you all copious blessings, the courage to face whatever won’t go so well in 2015, and the gratitude to make the most of everything this year offers.
