You found me and thank you in advance for visiting my blog/website “Wandering Gray.” Let me explain how I got here to this blog–oh where here to begin?…..For 18 years I worked in Radio then I moved to a PR/Marketing position with a lot of doubts as to whether leaving Radio was the right thing since Radio seemed like “home” to me. I was a chatterbox and started in the Radio/Media industry at age 16 and never dreamed I would leave it after being blessed with a shot and someone taking a chance on me at a very early age. My Mother always said making a living by talking was something I was destined for. She really thought I should be on QVC/the Home Shopping Network but that’s a story for another day. Radio was far from offering job security, though, and I was a single woman worried about what my future would hold so I opted to leave that world for something that afforded me some security, higher pay, and a pension. Would I make that choice again? Not sure, but the past is not something to dwell on. I made the choice and that was that. I longed for that “creative” outlet, though, and with me loving to write, I began with some informal “blogging” on Facebook, then more of a “real” blog with something called “Life With the Lid Down” where I wrote about my hobby of showing dogs and what life was like as a single woman balancing a career, multiple dogs, and showing dogs on the weekend. I had plenty of writing material with that, believe me. I didn’t do a good job of keeping up with that blog, but friends would always ask me to get back to my writing, telling me how much they enjoyed reading what I wrote and how much it made them laugh.
In 2019 I had an idea for a blog and I launched “Midlife in the Fast Lane.” I was in “Midlife” myself and I felt there was so much about it that no one prepares you for, so I thought I would write about that and my own experiences to share with others going through it at the same time. Also, at about that time, I started working with a Life Coaching program and it helped me get my head straight on many things. I spent time working on me, goal-setting, etc. and didn’t find enough time to write, plus I realized that with the nature of my position at work and being a “spokesperson” for the organization, it was wise to not have too much of a Social Media presence and the blog was perhaps not the best thing for me to do if I had any intentions of it “going” anywhere and gaining any kind of momentum. That desire to write, however, never left me.
Well, midlife does travel in the fast lane, time flew by, and I retired as of September 1 of this year. I spent this first month of retirement, i.e. the last 30 days, getting used to things, and it does take some time to do that. When I retired, I had people say to me, “Please tell me you’ll get back to your writing.” My colleagues want me to write a book/screenplay based on what we all did together for the last 25 years, and that might happen, but my first sights were set on getting back to blogging. I had “Midlife in the Fast Lane,” owned the URL for the .com for that, so there was the website waiting for me, but I was struggling with relating to that now. While it was fine while I was actually IN midlife, now, at age 60 and retired, that didn’t seem to fit me any longer. Everything I read about blogging and “Side Hustles” was you should figure out how to monetize your blog/website, so I may have gotten overly fixated on that, and that slowed me even more because I had no passion for counseling someone related to Midlife, or writing a “class” to sell, etc. I just want to write. I know that’s my strength, or at least the words easily”flow from my fingers” as I always say. People told me in the past reading my writing made them smile and they looked forward to when I had a new post. It reminded me of, (I’ll date myself with this) opening the newspaper looking forward to reading syndicated columnist Erma Bombeck back in the “old days” when she chronicled middle-class life in newspapers across the U.S. Is there still something to that? Sure, it may not be a newspaper you pick-up from the front step in your slippers every morning, but is there still something in our human tendencies and needs that will make someone look forward to that morning cup of coffee, tea, bowl of cereal, etc. and opening that smartphone or tablet to read what amounts to a the old-school syndicated column? Do humans still NEED that and could find comfort in something like that? We shall see.
Okay, so in my brain I justified that it’s okay if I just want to write, that my writing is all I have to offer, but I struggled with how to make Midlife in the Fast Lane work with just writing about life as it is now, retired and 60. Then it hit me: I can start fresh with where I am now! I can come up with a new name and move past the whole midlife theme since I’m no longer there anyway. Suddenly it all made sense. I just needed a new name for the blog! That’s tricky because if you want a .com domain/URL you have to find something available. Hmmm, my hair is now gray, and I’ve already seen how retirement is a lot of wandering around experiencing what free time is like and, with a play on words and meanings, I’m “wondering” what is ahead in life, so there it was: Wandering Gray. I’m wandering AND I’m wondering, but we’ll stick with the “a” spelling because that website domain was available.
So here we are. One month into retirement officially today, and I’m officially launching Wandering Gray. I’ll simply be writing about life and my observations being at this age and retired. Yes, there will be stories about my dogs. Yes, there will likely be anecdotes about the man in the house, who will be referred to only as “The Fisherman” because that’s his passion now that he’s also retired and I’ll give him a little anonymity, unless you know us, then you know who The Fisherman is. I’m not sure if I’ll write in the mornings or in the evenings. Either way, I’ll probably post in the evening, so that I can envision people waking up to my latest post with their favorite morning beverage. Yeah, you won’t have to wander out to the driveway to pick up a newspaper like the old days with my favorite columnist, Erma Bombeck. Now you can simply follow along on your smartphone or tablet, but it’s a close second. You can still enjoy your favorite beverage as you read. Erma never had to worry about monetizing her column as she got a paycheck (that word was not really around and used back in Erma’s day,)and I’m not saying I’ll ever get to where I can monetize this but I will assure you that if I mention a product or service it’s just because I really like it and I’m sharing, and if the day ever comes that I get “underwritten” to endorse something, I will tell you, and I will only mention products or services that I believe in (can you tell that sales/PR person is still in me? That part of my brain has not gone dormant in the last 30 days.)
I’m wandering and I’m gray. It’s a whole new life and a whole new chapter.
Observations on getting used to being one of those gray-haired retired people 