Here’s something wonderful: In the 1950s, ABC aired a show called Life Begins at 80. The show featured a rotating panel of men and women in their eighties. In each episode, the panel would answer questions sent in by viewers, and would talk about how great it is to be eighty or older. Don’t you just love that?
In that spirit, here are three stories of amazing folks who prove that life can, indeed, begin anew at any time, regardless of how many candles are on your birthday cake.
At Age 65, Arkansas Man Becomes Successful Entrepreneur
Jim Butenschoen, 65, of Springdale, Arkansas, was fed up with the corporate world. After spending more than two decades in the IT industry, he wanted to go into business for himself. And so he opened the Career Academy of Hair Design starting with just six employees. Now, eight years later, he has thirty-two employees at four establishments!
“Despite all the ups and downs, I have never done anything more satisfying,” he says.
You can read about Over-50 Entrepreneurship in this article on Entrepreneur.com.
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At Age 72, Woman Has Been Backpacking the World for 10 Years
Meet Sherill, a true nomad. In an interview with the travel blog Nomadic Matt, Sherill says: “At 62, with the kids out of the house and the husband gone, I cleaned out my life and packed up what was left in a Plymouth Voyager van with my cats and two tents (I could not decide which one I wanted), and I headed south from Tacoma, Washington, to Mexico. The plan was to camp on the beaches for the winter and figure out the rest on the way. Ten years, later I am still traveling.”
So inspiring! You can read the rest of Sherill’s interview here.
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At Age 103, Grandmother Gets Her First Tattoo
This story is undoubtedly my favorite. At age 103, Dorothy Pollack, of Muskegon, Michigan, went to AWOL Custom Tattooing with her granddaughter and crossed an item off her bucket list: her first tattoo. The tattoo is a little frog, and the parlor did the artwork for free. Afterwards, Dorothy decided to take her first ride on the back of a motorcycle.
She says that the key to a long life is keeping busy.
You can see pictures of Dorothy and read more about her on SunnySkyz.com
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I hope these stories inspired you as much as they did me! What are some things you’d like to be doing when you’re seventy, eighty, ninety and beyond?
Hugs and Happy Reading!
Misha
At 60, thanks to a push from my wife, I left the working world and walked the Camino de Santiago, then published my first book about the adventure. Four more European long-distance backpacking trips and eight years later, I keep the adventures alive during these times by working on my second book. Each decade of my life has held its own adventures, but I can say I could never have predicted where my 60s would take me. I wonder what my 70s hold.
Wow, Reg, that’s wonderful! I love it. 😊 Thank you so much for sharing your story. I will have to check out your book; it sounds great. ❤️
Thank you. If you end up reading my book, I would love to hear what you think.