I turned 40 last summer, and yes, there was a point where I didn't think I'd make it this far either--but it's great to be here, isn't it?
My mom is an internationally-famous belly dance instructor. I remember travelling with her to SE Asia a few years ago (as her go-fer and technical assistant), and when she led a seminar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, there was a lady who had flown all the way from Beijing just to take her class.
People who know this ask me, "Did she teach you to belly dance when you were a kid?" And the answer is NO, SHE DIDN'T because she started belly dancing as an empty-nester hobby when she was in her early 40s and I was long off to college and gone. Her second career is so much more HER, uses her talents and taps into her real passions, far far more than the job she had in her 20s and 30s (schoolteacher) was.
So she's my growing-older role model. It's why I don't believe that Women of a Certain Age are doomed to frumpy haircuts and mom-jeans. I just hope that when I'm 62 I can wear a sparkly beaded dance ensemble half as well as my mom did when I saw her perform again last year. Men in their 20s gnaw their wrists Lenny-and-Squiggy style when she dances. But she pays them no mind.
no subject
I turned 40 last summer, and yes, there was a point where I didn't think I'd make it this far either--but it's great to be here, isn't it?
My mom is an internationally-famous belly dance instructor. I remember travelling with her to SE Asia a few years ago (as her go-fer and technical assistant), and when she led a seminar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, there was a lady who had flown all the way from Beijing just to take her class.
People who know this ask me, "Did she teach you to belly dance when you were a kid?" And the answer is NO, SHE DIDN'T because she started belly dancing as an empty-nester hobby when she was in her early 40s and I was long off to college and gone. Her second career is so much more HER, uses her talents and taps into her real passions, far far more than the job she had in her 20s and 30s (schoolteacher) was.
So she's my growing-older role model. It's why I don't believe that Women of a Certain Age are doomed to frumpy haircuts and mom-jeans. I just hope that when I'm 62 I can wear a sparkly beaded dance ensemble half as well as my mom did when I saw her perform again last year. Men in their 20s gnaw their wrists Lenny-and-Squiggy style when she dances. But she pays them no mind.