Member-only story
Does Your Life Have a Backup Plan?
Whether you call it a backup plan, a plan B, or something else, everyone should have one
What’s your backup plan? Mine is simple. I get back up. Like the song says, “Gettin’ back up, that’s the only plan you need.” (Songwriters Tucker Beathard, Jimi Ball and Jon Sherwood; sung by Bailey Zimmerman and Luke Combs.)
Another expression for it might be “I use my resilience.” At 80, “resilience” is probably the best word to describe my life so far.
My career plans in fashion design didn’t work out — so I went to law school.
My heart’s been broken more than once. But 30 years later, I married the man who once dumped me.
I’ve survived breast cancer and HIV/AIDS. This year, I even committed to raising $1 million for AIDS research.
I guess I’m a survivor (another good word) because I’m not just alive — I’m thriving.
In the last three years, I moved from Colorado to Santa Barbara. I spent two weeks in Europe and took a cruise to Alaska. I did a week-long Love of Aging workshop in Mexico. And two years ago, I went back to work as a bankruptcy attorney.
But let me back up and tell you how I got here.
