This is the only life you have, make it count.
Marge Penney
Marge Penney has reinvented herself a number of times. She's had multiple careers. She has retired. She has unretired. She moved far away from her roots in her early 20s and has stayed in the Midwest ever since.
Yet she offers advice that she received from her mother relatively recently in her life, at a time we euphemistically call middle age.
"I can remember her saying this pretty clearly," Penney said. "'Remember this is not a dress rehearsal. This is the only life you have, so make it count.'"
Penney was about 50 years old at the time and contemplating what she called "life changes." She talked with her 72-year-old mother about it.
"They were changes I was interested in making, and I was uneasy about doing it," Penney recalled.
Her mother, Claire D'Esposito, was encouraging her to trust herself, that it was OK to undertake these changes.
"Honestly, I think that is important advice to people who have reached middle age," Penney said. "That in youth in our culture we are encouraged to take a chance and follow our dreams. Somehow that slips away as you get older and you're supposed to be more careful and cautious. Mother wasn't a great believer in careful and cautious."
— Susan Harman
