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you → receive → article
In "Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love" (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster), National Public Radio health and science correspondent and "Sunday Morning" contributor Allison Aubrey writes about the steps Gen Xers may take to foster a sense of purpose as they enter this next stage of life.
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they → create → life
Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.
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Audible → have → trial
If you've been so busy taking care of others that you haven't had time for yourself, you're not alone.
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you → take → yourself
As a Gen X woman, I've spent decades in the trenches, toggling between kids and career.
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I → spend → kids
When I hit a midlife wall, I took a sabbatical from my day job.
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I → hit → job
I called it a "curiosity tour," and I went in search of people making bold, heartfelt pivots.
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I → call → pivots
What I found made me excited for the future.
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me → find → future
These women showed me how much opportunity and adventure can still lie ahead.
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opportunity → show → me
One way to start a midlife reset is to make time to be creative.
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way → start → time
Creativity lets us express what's inside of us, and it can be a bridge to connection.
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it → let → connection
Sometimes the nudge to begin comes from someone else's story.
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nudge → begin → story
Excerpt from Chapter 8, It's About Damn Time
"I used to be so delusional.
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I → use → Time
I always imagined I could be more than I was, and eventually I grew and evolved into that person."
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I → imagine → person
Every spring, I take a bluebell hike with my friends, when the purplish bell-shaped wildflowers temporarily blanket the woodlands along the Potomac River.
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wildflowers → take → River
Last year, Amy Wilton, a friend of a friend who happens to be a professional photographer, joined us.
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who → happen → us
When the hike was over, as she scrolled through to share her images, it wasn't the bluebells I found engaging.
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I → scroll → images
"Wait, stop, go back," I said as she flitted through.
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she → wait → ?
It was a portrait she'd taken in Maine that caught my eye, of a woman singing onstage.
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that → take → woman
A picture can paint a thousand words, but this one painted one: transcendence.
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one → paint → one
I had to know more.
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I → have → more
I visited Kristi Kalajian in Camden, Maine, where she lives.
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she → visit → Camden
Turns out, Kristi works as a PA, a physician assistant.
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Kristi → turn → PA
Her part-time gig is as a singer in a band, a role she didn't seriously entertain until her fiftieth birthday.
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she → entertain → birthday
Kristi has a lush and smoky voice and has always loved R&B. As her fiftieth birthday approached, that I need to sing feeling resurfaced.
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feeling → love → R&B.
She made up a set list of her favorite songs and began practicing to get her voice back into shape.
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She → make → shape
"I was so nervous," Kristi told me.
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Kristi → tell → me
She invited a bunch of people to the home of a friend, who had a gorgeous grand piano.
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who → invite → piano
She didn't want to stop.
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She → want → ?
She really wanted to be in a band again.
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She → want → band
"Looking back, that was definitely the thing that was missing in my life," she says.
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she → look → life
But she lives in a small town and had two teenagers at the time, as well as her job that required long hours, so road shows were a nonstarter.
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shows → live → hours
Time passed.
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Time → pass → ?
Then, she was invited to a New Year's celebration where the host asked everyone to make a vision board.
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host → invite → board
Kristi had always considered this kind of thing to be hokey, but she went along anyway.
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she → consider → thing
Throwing caution and cynicism to the wind, she picked up a pair of scissors and, without thinking, began to cut out pictures of musicians and instruments, a band and horn players, and, yes, a singer performing to a cheering crowd.
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she → throw → crowd
Not more than a month later, a local musician approached her.
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musician → approach → her
"Hey, a friend is looking for a singer with a smoky voice to join his band.
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friend → look → band
Within a few weeks, they were rehearsing, and they've been playing gigs ever since.
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they → rehearse → gigs
When Kristi stepped up to sing the lead on her band's rendition of Lizzo's 2020 hit song, "About Damn Time," I couldn't help thinking that she had found her third-turn anthem.
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she → step → anthem
…and 33 more, not listed.
The Aporia
