They say life begins at 65, but don’t you believe them! Life begins at whatever year you decide to make things happen.
My life began at 75. It was the life that I had always wanted, not the life I had with my parents, or the life I had with my husband or my children This time it was what my life would have been if I had been as wise as I am today. and pursued a dream that could have started then, but I had to wait 55 years to happen.
Somewhere in the back of my head, and the tips of my fingers, as I touched the keyboard I knew that I had a dream inside of me. just waiting to come out….and happen. I just had no time to pursue it, or how to achieve it. So it just lay dormant within me. Just waiting.
Life went on. Husbands died. Children married, parents died, and still that epitaph that I had written for myself, so many years ago, nagged me…Here lie Sondra, she died without ever knowing who she was’……I did not realize that for a dream to come true, you had to move mountains, change paths, and, in my instant remain alone.
Marriage for me was no longer an option as it would hold no surprises for me. I wanted what I had never had, and so I returned to college to finish what I had started many years ago. The knowledge that I had gained, the atmosphere that I had enjoyed, the people that I met, and the challenges were remarkable. I thrived on it and aimed for the high grades, the lower ones being part of my life as a teenager….I graduated with honors, walked down the aisle with a grin from ear to ear. I had moved a mountain….I had done the impossible …and looked for more…..I walked into college at 63 years of age, and walked out 36 years of age.
And so I started a new life, a new day, with the dreams still inside, not knowing how to escape or be fulfilled. No matter, ahead were challenges, never before met. I picked up a brush and taught myself how to paint, I used a different brush and painted ceramics. Each time they improved. At times they even sold.
One day, I had the urge to have Cole slaw with my dinner. Silly urge, I had made it many times in my lifetime, but this time, I wanted a recipe I had once before seen on the Internet. And so, I Google searched make Cole slaw, and the recipe came up….and also a screen came up urging me on. My curiosity got the best of me, as I realized that this was a site where people ‘write’…writing had been a part of me my entire lifetime….and so as I printed out the recipe for Coleslaw, I also wrote one for cooking in a crock pot…and I never left.
It has been over a year now since I searched for the Cole slaw, and over 25,000 contributions that I have made, over 100 articles that I had started, over 60 of them Featured Articles. And still I remain, with no intention of leaving. It’s a world out there, and I enjoy being a part of it.
I woke up this morning, and realized, that the dream that I had so long ago dreamed, had somehow come true!!. The Orlando Sentinel had written a full page article about me….which ended up in the blogs, which ended up in the search engines which ended up with telephone calls to interview me for a radio station interview, and an interview for a major Blog…..I felt elated, no longer a nagging feeling , or a searching for something. I woke up content, and happy, my dream had finally come true. at 76 young years old. But its only the start of the dream…..this dream has more places to go….I just started a blog….and I will link to another blog, and web sites will link to me. My name will continue being found and accepted on the Internet, throughout the world…
Life begins at whatever age …as long as you keep taking the paths towards a new beginning. My life began at 75, with wikiHow as the start.
reprinted from http://www.wikihow.com/User:Dreamgal2- Used with Permission
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