Comments:
After years of thinking “I wonder whatever happened to so-and-so from high school…” it was a thrill to stumble on this site and find out! I’ve spent a bittersweet couple of hours remembering the past, reviewing everyone’s lives and lamenting over the classmates who died too young.
For me the past 40 years have been full of good luck and mostly happy adventures. After graduating from UC Davis I lived in San Francisco for 5 wonderful years, working in environmental planning. At age 30 I decided I was living too cautiously, so I quit my job to freelance as a writer. Then I had a chance meeting with someone that led to freelance work with UNICEF in New York. I soon decided I wanted to work overseas as a UNICEF information officer, which required a master’s degree. So I headed back to California and got a master's in journalism at UC Berkeley.
After a couple of detours, including work for a newspaper in New Jersey, I had 7 fabulous years in New York with UNICEF. And then I got my overseas dream assignment: Rome. But UN staff members get used to moving, and after 3 unforgttable years I moved to Albania - also unforgettable, for quite different reasons. Living in a poor country coming out of 40 years of totalitarian government, I had many opportunities to reflect on how easy we have it in the US!
While in Albania I (finally!) met the love of my life – on the Internet. I resigned from my job and moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where Brent is a lawyer. I got married for the first time at the age of 55. It was satisfying (and inspirational to my single friends) to defy all the predictions about the odds of getting married after age 40! Along with a dear husband I got a family of 10 cats (Brent has a very soft heart).
Now I freelance as a writer. Not sure when I’ll retire – I’m afraid the brain cells may stop firing if I do.
I’m sorry I didn’t hear about the 40th reunion and hope to see everyone at the 50th!
