63 Years Old - Now What?
Posted on July 13, 2021 by Bridget Fitzpatrick, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
You are never to old to reinvent yourself and I did it at 63 years old! I took the chance to change and never looked back!
Age is just a number they say. You look so much younger than 63. You don’t act 63! No way are you 63 years old! Ya, ya… I’ve heard it all but… how in the world did I get to be 63 years old and now find myself trying on another career? Lucky maybe?
Well it depends on how you define luck. Let me give you a little background on why I think lucky. I’ve never been a person who wants to get in a routine for any length of time. I like change. Scary as it can be, change for me is like breathing. Maybe it’s because my sign is Gemini, maybe it’s because I have a hyper personality or maybe it just beats the alternative of staying in the same place doing the same thing day after day. All I know for sure is that I like change and I have had lots of opportunities to change direction.
I started my adult life in the normal routine. Got married and had kids. After my kids got a little older I found myself in an “anything but routine” job working for my local police department. Each day there was something new, different and most times, unexpected. And while I stayed in that job for 24 years, I experienced a lot of changes. Some of those changes included how the police viewed citizens and changes in how citizens viewed police, just to name a few.
Around year 10 of that career, I went through really big change. Divorce. Going through divorce I learned that no matter which partner wants the divorce, it still feels like whatever side you are on is the harder side. If you don’t want to be left, it sucks. If you want to leave, it sucks. Divorce sucks. You can recover and you can have a good relationship with your ex after divorce, but getting their requires that you go through some really sucky stuff to get to the other side.
Fast forward to my years 22-24 on the force, age 57-59, and the restlessness was starting to set in. I was presented an opportunity to sell everything I own and move across the country to take a position in a family business. While financially it probably wasn’t the most sound decision, it was the decision that provided me with that much needed change. So change I did.
I sold my house, my furnishings and most everything I owned with the exception of some keepsakes that I sent on ahead of my journey. Once I made it to my destination, I had another change waiting for me. The few things that I did keep got stolen, leaving me with my clothes and not much else. That is when I changed my attitude. You can steal my stuff. Things are just things and they can be replaced. But you can’t steal my memories.
Onward ho to the new life and the numerous challenges of learning a new business. The best part was, since I was family helping family, they really couldn’t fire me right? But they could, four years later, sell the business. So that is where I am at now. 63 years old and not done so my question is now what? I don’t have that answer yet but what I do know is this, changing at 63 is scary, exciting and challenging. Hopefully this change is going to open a whole new world of opportunities for me. I can’t see around the corner but I am sure there is something new and exciting waiting for me.
They say you are never too old to learn and you are never too old to change. I believe that and I am lucky because I like change. I don’t know where I am going yet, but wherever it is, I will be there. After all, I am only 63 years old right?
