Tag: encore careers

Retired: The Forever Young Generation Retools

(Or why a seventy-year-old woman wrote her first book) My younger brother just retired. So did my husband’s younger sister. Like me back in May of 2013, when I finally really retired from Cherry Preschool, after breathing a sigh of relief, they are asking, “Now what?” I’m not sure how to answer that question. Every... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
June 20, 2016 at 5:05 pm • 

My book is now available on Amazon!

Who writes her first book at age seventy? That would be me. Terribly Strange and Wonderfully Real is a collection of essays speaking to and for baby boomers, a generation transitioning to senior citizenship. My essays catalog the strangeness of turning seventy and becoming the family matriarch, coupled with the wonders of adapting to an... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
May 18, 2016 at 3:06 pm • 

About Joe Biden, Retirement, and New Beginnings

The media is looking at Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not run for President as a political calculus. Biden talked about “the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president” closing. But I choose to view his decision through the lens of a woman who took six years to retire from a career she... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
October 26, 2015 at 7:17 am • 
Advertisement:

Writing my Book: July...not so Productive

OK, this was totally predictable. Who told me summer was a good time to write a book? Why did I not even consider the possibility that first drafts are easy for me but actual writing requires revision and more revision? I am finally conceding that I welcome the interruptions. Ideas and first drafts are totally... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
August 24, 2015 at 10:08 am • 

Writing a Book: Life's Distractions and Other Excuses

Here’s how I have always written, even in my pre-computer life. Rough draft: Just keep writing and get everything down. Final draft: Polish and revise rough draft, adding brilliant insights and correcting spelling errors. The concept of multiple revisions and deleting the paragraph I love because it doesn’t fit is totally foreign to me. Also,... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
August 5, 2015 at 9:44 am • 

Writing a Book: The Next Pages Come Slowly

I have spent my summer under the illusion that I could produce a book. Monday mornings are the worst. I start the week staring at that stupid blinking curser on my computer. Then I return to writing…my diary. What a folly that I could write a book over the summer and be done in time... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
July 27, 2015 at 8:18 am • 
Advertisement:

Writing a Book or Bridget Jones’s Diary for Seniors

I promised readers of this blog that I would not post too often this summer, as I was going to write a book. And I am trying, I really am. What I am discovering is that this project is much harder than I expected. So to justify my slower-than-anticipated progress, I started writing about why... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
July 20, 2015 at 10:14 am • 

Retired but Certainly not the Retiring Type: My Encore Career

Not useless or used up – just a retired volunteer. What a pathetic headline for a whiny blog post. Back in October of 2013, less than a month into my blog, I wrote this rant about how hard it was to volunteer my time and talent. After unloading my sorrows on my friend, Marcia Liss,... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
July 6, 2015 at 8:57 am • 

On Vacation: Celebrating my 200th Blog Post by Writing a Book

When I started this encore career back in September of 2013, I announced I was Reinvented, Not Retired. My first post was inspired by 64-year-old Diana Nyad, who had just completed a 110 mile swim from Cuba to Florida, something she had been trying to do for 35 years. She had trained for this fifth attempt... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
June 8, 2015 at 6:32 am • 
Advertisement:

On Writing…My Encore Career

I took one of those online quizzes (ever so accurate) that asked, “What career were you meant for” and guess what? I got writer. That confirms the choice I made to start blogging shortly after I retired from a long career in early childhood education. I was meant to be a writer all along. I... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
January 28, 2015 at 10:03 am •