Amazing Friend #1

Have you ever noticed who you surround yourself with?  This is suppose to be an important key as to the person you are.  I guess that means you can exclude family because your stuck with them one way or another. I notice that the friends I choose or that choose me.......not sure how that works....all come from very interesting backgrounds. This makes me wonder if I have an innate affection for peoples background stories.  Knowing how people have grown up and what their lives were like before they became the person they are now probably has something to do with the fact that I love a good story.

Here's just a sample of what I mean:
One of my oldest friends that happens to be 84 years old grew up in Wisconsin during the depression and like most young woman she married at 21 and had 3 children.  During her marriage she was mainly a homemaker but upon request of the school principal she did some teaching during a severe shortage of teachers.  Her marriage ended in divorce......so what did she do?  She went back to college to become a psychologist at the ripe age of  50. Her internship took her to Tucson Arizona where she says,  "That  year was one of the best I have ever had, from the standpoint of learning, exploring a new area of the country, and fun."

When we met she was already in her early 60's and she told my daughter and I of a trip she was planning to take biking through Holland during tulip season.  As you can imagine we were amazed.  Not only was she the first person we knew to do this.  She was the first 63 year old we knew that was training herself to bike 15-30 miles a day on vacation!

From there she amazed us with continuing with her education on her many vacations she took through Backroads and Road Scholar, formerly Elderhostel that specializes in vacations abroad that include classes in everything from cooking to history and of course biking thru far away countries.

Her career as a clinical psychologist spanned from 1986-1999. Once she retired she found herself bored (decorating her garage one day) and decided to push herself out of her comfort zone and do something new.  She became a certified Pilates Instructor at age of 72 and still teaches several classes a week.
After mastering that, she started taking ballroom dancing classes at age 75, which she now competes in regularly.

Joan is currently publishing a book she wrote titled, Keep on Dancing and other Attitudes, Platitudes, and Latitudes from the Ballroom Floor....to be released this fall.

I know your all dropping your jaw and maybe like me want to be just like Joan.  I'm wondering how I'm going to top this story and feel sorry for the person that has to follow her.  It's like a comedian you don't want to follow the best one of the night.
But, I have someone in mind.......