Becky Blanton
Creative Director and Editor of VABusiness Reports
Jul 20, 2015
I learned to kayak in college. I took a job as a director of operations for a small rafting company on the Chattooga River (Of Deliverance fame). My job sounded like a big deal, but mostly it meant I ran the cash register, sold t-shirts, drove the shuttle and helped the cook feed a crew of mostly male raft guides. I eventually learned to raft, then kayak. My white water experience was primarily Class 1 to Class III water with the occasional class IV water thrown in on days I felt brave. I also learned rescue techniques and was good with a rope.
Once that job ended I rarely got in a boat again, just because I didn't know anyone who ran rivers in Colorado, where I'd move to. I dragged my boat along, but never used it. I sold it when I moved back east.
Forty years later I got back on the water, trying ocean kayaking, and loved it. Why had I waited so long? As I was sitting in the middle of some swells on the Chesapeake Bay on Saturday it occurred to me that I was surrounded by five other women, all about my age or older, who had waited too. We were all taking up kayaking, or had been kayaking off and on and were getting serious about it again. A woman I paddled closely with, was 72. The swells and breaking waves were making her nervous so she and I and the instructor rafted up for a few minutes to talk about it. We find out she'd gone skydiving with her son the month before...he gave her a tandem jump as a birthday present. I suddenly felt really old.
She loved it and all she can think about is "doing it again." Another woman I met had been an x-ray tech, then became a health educator, then an RN...and just kept changing her jobs as she realize what she wanted to do. The other women were the same. They all reinvented themselves....from a divorce mother of two teens, to a high school Spanish teacher....I was so impressed.
Maybe I've been going to all the wrong places to meet people because these women weren't complaining, they were exploring! Just because they had one career, they weren't afraid to seek out another. They liked kayaking and camping and trying new things. And we're in our 50's, 60's and 70's. It's never too late to find something you love, or rediscover a new love. I came home inspired to lose weight and get in shape so I can continue to paddle. Maybe taking up an old sport isn't reinventing myself, but losing weight, risking new friendships, new experiences and embracing a different lifestyle is.
Don't wait to do, try or learn something new. One day you'll wake up and there won't be time to do what you want to do.
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reinventing-yourself-becky-blanton?trk=eml-b2_content_ecosystem_digest-network_publishes-265-null&midToken=AQGg9tVGdAEiDA&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=0DSYx_cdv9JSQ1
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