Recently, I celebrated a Big Thing with my oldest, oldest, friends
I emphasise “oldest” because she recently had a go at me about calling her my oldest friend when introducing her to people. You see, she is six months older than me, and boy, do I ever rub it in when she becomes “a whole year older than me” every April.
We’ve known each other since we were five, and I used to envy her notching up the years, but now it’s just a twice-yearly piss-take opportunity where she’s the brunt of my ageist jokes in April, and she enjoys turning the tables on me in October when I catch her up.
However, somehow, our friendship seems to survive and becomes more precious as the years roll by.
We’ve been through lots together over the course of our lives, and what I love about her is that we are totally on the same page as far ageing is concerned, i.e., it’s a game we’re not taking part in.
Sure, our bodies and faces are changing as the years go by, but we’re not going quietly into the night as far as our hopes and dreams are concerned.
She is a professional researcher and writer, but she’s not content with just earning a living doing factual writing; she has decided to expand her horizons and follow a dream by applying for a master's degree in writing for script and screen.
She had to “audition” for the course by sending in a sample screenplay.
Now, she is also part of our 5% Mastermind community, and she has shared her goal of applying for the course at previous meetings.
When we held a client event here at Rose Cottage a few weeks ago, we all had the privilege and fun of acting out (terribly, of course) her audition script, which we all agreed was brilliant, but of course, she suspected we were just being kind, and was very unsure whether she would make the grade for the course because she had no prior experience of screenwriting, and other applicants were likely to be improvers rather than beginners.
It was no shock to me when she announced the news that she had been accepted on the course. Not only that, but her tutor said he could not believe it was her first attempt at screenwriting!
And so, I am convinced it won’t be long before I’ll need a new frock to attend the BAFTA’s. (I made her promise to get me tickets to all her awards ceremonies because she is my oldest, oldest friend!)
We invited her over to dinner the other night to celebrate, and when I was walking her out to her car, I told her I felt so lucky we were both retraining and feeling excited about our future careers at an age when many people are thinking about stopping work completely.
Not that there’s anything wrong with retiring if that’s what makes you happy, but I know it’s not what I want, and I’m really pleased that I can share my journey of non-retirement with my bestie.
So, congratulations again to my Old Chum (she reads my posts - in fact, she is currently engaged in a project with me putting together a collection of them into a book), and I hope this gives you inspiration if you are in your, shall we say, riper years and thinking about your next goal.
People tend to be happiest when they’re working towards something, so what could be your Next Thing?