In the spring I turn 58. I was born in the first year of the Generation X cohort.

How is it that the older I’ve gotten I’m on a kick to reinvent myself? The idea of self-reinvention has booted me to risk change. Risking change because I believe in tomorrow.

2023 will be better. In the last weeks of this year I’ve remembered my Teenage Riot. At thirteen years old I had a red skateboard. Rolled down the sloping streets in my neighborhood. Not doing an ollie or other explosive move.

Just happy to be rocking and rolling along the hilly streets.

To this end I’m going to buy a skateboard for my birthday and practice riding on the asphalt roadway in the park. Why can’t a 58-year old woman skate was my thinking.

You do not know until you try what you’re capable of. The older you get you should not rule out going after a long-lost goal with gusto.

What joy-making activities did you give up on when you became an adult? Thinking back to my short-lived skateboarding hobby set ablaze my intention to try to skate in the park.

For fun. Not because I had to be great at it. Simply for fun.

How to Be Older should involve engaging in what gives us joy. Our Third Chapter should be full of light love and laughter.

Failing boldly is the only way to live on the road to achieving success.

I’ll end here with this:

Just maybe–after having a successful career or failing at a career either way–the 25 years after 50 should be spent not trying to or having to prove ourselves and our worth to others.

I might be the oldest person on a skateboard rolling on the asphalt road. That’s okay.

What I know is that as our lives get shorter this is the time to not waste another minute hour day week month or year caring what people think of us and how we look.

Are you in for risking falling down? I’m all for embracing risk. Risk, fail, rise up, and repeat. That’s the only way to live in our Third Chapter if you ask me.