[Virginia DeBolt who blogs at First 50 Words left a comment in October that intrigued me. Responding to my wish for more theatre about elders comfortable in their singleness, she said her life was far better as a woman alone. One goal of this blog is to connect with women living in other large cities. Thanks to Ronni Bennett and the PhoneCon adventure, I "met" Virginia, who lives in Albuquerque, a place I lived in the early 1960s. Here are her thoughts on life after 60 in the Southwest.]
I was an only child and I live alone now. It suits me, being alone, and is one of the reasons I'm happy. I love my family and beautiful grandchildren, my friends, my online communities. But I like having a room of my own, too.When I made some major changes in my life after 50, many thought I was bold or brave. To me it was finding that soul-place where I'd always wanted to be.
My internal image of myself always was as a writer, never a teacher. Toward the end of my teaching career, I trained in cooperative learning and the writing process. The combination was a perfect fit, and I wrote four books that help teachers teach writing. I was also active in writers' groups, attempted all sorts of writing on my own.
Retiring from public school teaching in a little town in New Mexico, I moved to Texas. Someone had suggested that Austin was a good fit--great writers' group, seven nearby universities, and a nice music scene. To get there I drove a U-Haul truck by myself with car hitched on behind. I didn't know a soul in Austin. Writers there were wonderful and helped me find work--and keep writing.
A class I hoped would help find me a day job as a technical writer led me to HTML. That first HTML class changed my life. It was 1995, the Internet boom was beginning. If I knew HTML, I could publish some of my writing on my own website. This was long before blogging. Little did I know that everyone would be her own publisher in a few years! I did find work as a tech writer, what I was doing was making web pages that happened to be on technical topics.
I was soaking up new technical information as if it would sustain like food. Ambrosia! Next I taught web page building at the same college where I'd taken that first class. This started me on a crusade to change the way books that teach web design approach the material. I'm still yapping about that and have written two books about making web sites and blog at Web Teacher about teaching web design.
The internet boom brought thousands every month to Austin for high tech jobs. The traffic was awful, and I was at an age where an 8-to-5 job did not look as good as Social Security and retirement income. I also missed the mountains and the seasons. Austin is beautiful, but it's endless summer; I wanted spring and fall too.
Packed it all up again and headed back to New Mexico, this time, Albuquerque. I downsized: smaller house, fewer things. I missed my old writing practice group from Austin and decided to make my own group with First 50 Words. Each day I write 50 or so words (no technical writing allowed) about anything. I can't seem to stop writing prompts, as if I were still teaching younsters to write. I love that minute or two every day when I can be creative this way.
Can't say I'm actually retired since I'm writing more than ever, but I do not have to go somewhere during rush hour. To get to my computer, I just crawl out of bed and start typing. There's a mountain right outside my front door and the full array of all four seasons. For me, this is the right place and the right time. The photo above was taken on my morning walk toward the Sandia Mountains on an unusually cloudy day.
I didn't imagine when I was younger that I would enjoy my 50s and 60s so much, or look forward to my 70s with such anticipation. The elder years hve been among my happiest, a bit of information that would have shocked my younger self.
[Visit Virginia's home page for more on her several books about HTML]
Lord knows I don't need to add another blog to me reading list, but I bookmarked that one. Thanks!
Posted by: kenju | January 17, 2007 at 03:22 PM
I love this blog! What rich and beautiful thoughts. Thanks Naomi.
Posted by: marianne | January 18, 2007 at 09:48 AM
What a wonderful outlook.
My computer is close by, too, and I can see the Rockies from my door.
I hope I'm still as excited about life in my next decade as you are.
Posted by: Leah J. Utas | January 18, 2007 at 06:15 PM
What a great post. I just did a post about my trip from 65 to 81.
What I found particularly interesting about this one is the fact that Virginia says she never expected to be so happy in her 50's and 60's and is looking forward to her 70's.
Hear, hear I'll take it one step further - I never expected to have such a productive and satisfying life and be so happy in my 80's!!
Posted by: millie garfield | January 18, 2007 at 08:01 PM
Am finally making it back here after a long absence and am surely glad to catch this post which now finds me needing to seek out even another blog.
This surely does ring some bells for me having just started my own blog and a writing class. Whole new worlds can open their doors even after 70.
Posted by: Joared | February 11, 2007 at 04:11 AM
Does anybody expect to be HAPPY when they get over 50 (or 60 or 70)?? I sure didn't. All we hear is gloom and doom and AARP-kinda stuff. I'm with you. I've never been happier, and it just keeps getting better and better.
Posted by: maryec | February 13, 2007 at 08:26 PM