I’m much older than the average parent with kids going off to college…we adopted an infant daughter when I was 46. So parenthood was already a big re-do of adulthood for me and it kept me young. But when she goes off to college, I think I’ll be a little too tired and worn to completely re-invent myself career-wise, yet too young to want to relax into a passive old(er) age. Many people my age have grandchildren going off to college (or having great-grandkids. Yikes! ). My husband is five years younger than me, so nowhere near retirement age. I think I’ll feel in an in-between bubble, not sure where I fit or which direction to head in life. I’m close to my daughter, so her leaving will be a double-whammy for me in both missing her and figuring out my life stage.
I do know I’ll be hankering to do some serious independent travel if we can afford it while paying college bills. I’m feeling that my time of being healthy enough to seriously hike and explore the world the way I like may not last forever (I am not one to want to glide about in an airconditioned tour bus with 60 other older Americans. Not saying that’s a bad thing at all, it’s just not me). DH just doesn’t have my degree of wanderlust, either …he’s happiest staying near home and bicycling.
Right now my focus is getting as fit as I can be (trying to walk at least an hour per day or more in our very hilly town) and getting rid of clutter, to be ready for whatever is the next chapter. Lost around 12 pounds since spring (now just around five pounds over my optimal young-adult weight!) so I’m feeling a decade younger already. That won’t make me miss my daughter less, of course, but maybe keeping fit will keep me from slipping as easily into a post-middle-age depression.