Planning my second act!

YIKES!  I'm approaching the big 5-0!  At the same time I am planning a midlife reinvention.  What am I reinventing to?  That's the million dollar question.

I'm probably like a lot of other women who graduated from college, began a career, started a family, and then gave up the career to stay at home and raise the children (or in my case, the child).

I worked building my career for about 7 years until my husband was promoted with his company and we moved to another state.  Feeling the need to stay home and raise our daughter I stayed home but ended up working part time jobs for the next 18 years.

Having the flexibility to work part time over the last nearly two decades, I've been able to try my hand at a few different jobs.  I've been a school fundraising sales rep, a real estate assistant, and currently I cover education for the local newspaper. 

That leads us to today when our daughter is one semester away from graduating college.  While she is at a major crossroad in her life, I feel like I'm at one too.

I'd like to return full-time to the workforce in the field of communications, but at the same time I recognize that I've been out of the field for such a long time that my technological skills are somewhat lacking.  I don't know Photoshop, I'm not well-versed in In Design and I don't know the ins and outs of HTML.

At the same time, I feel it's ironic that I'm at a point in my life where my self-confidence is likely at its peak.  Never before have I felt so comfortable in my skin as I do now.

I feel quite confident that I can do almost anything, and I feel that I have such a vast amount of "life" and "volunteer" experiences that I could handle the most challenging situations and people.  I'm a multi-tasker beyond words and I have been told that I get more done in 24 hours than most do in an 8 hour work-day.  I was simply blessed with parents who taught me a solid work-ethic, and I have an entrepreneurial drive that propels me take control and get things done.

As I reinvent my life past 50, I'm searching for a way to utilize my experience in a home-based business where I can work from wherever in the U.S. we decide to re-plant ourselves.  I also believe I'd enjoy teaching communications courses at the college level (junior college would be great) but that means going back for a master's degree.  At nearly 50, I'm not so sure that's the best use of my time?

So what's the game plan for life after 50?  Well, I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I can tell you that I'm working on it and writing this blog is helping me to hone in on the final plan. It's funny how just writing my thoughts down helps to analyze the situation.

Stay tuned...when I figure it all out...you'll be one of the first to know.