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_WELCOME TO ETHELS TELL ALL, WHERE THE WRITERS BEHIND_ THE ETHEL _NEWSLETTER SHARE THEIR PERSONAL STORIES RELATED TO THE JOYS AND CHALLENGES OF AGING. COME BACK EACH WEDNESDAY FOR THE LATEST
PIECE, EXCLUSIVELY ON __AARP MEMBERS EDITION._ During a recent stay at an RV park, I was chatting with an older man from the lot next to mine, admiring the golf cart he’d unhooked from his
trailer. He laughed and said the vehicle was an “age-transitional” thing; he’d traded his Harley-Davidson Sportster for the four-seater golf cart. A memory from 40 years ago flashed through
my mind: of riding on the back of my boyfriend’s motorcycle as we zigzagged through traffic on I-95. I shuddered at the thought. Who _was_ that girl? In my early 20s, I never worried about
my mortality; I lived a life of spontaneity to keep boredom at bay, even if it meant being reckless. I had no plans of ever slowing down, but with aging came wisdom and plenty of “what the
heck was I thinking” moments that changed how I wanted to live during my second act. MORE FROM ETHELS TELL ALL There are still glimpses of that spontaneous daredevil girl inside me, and I
like to think I’m still young at heart at 65. But I’ve changed in many ways, doing things I never imagined I’d be doing when I was younger. It started with small changes: switching from MTV
to HGTV, swapping out my leather wristlets for bright tote bags large enough to carry everything in my refrigerator, and going to bed at 9 p.m. instead of going to bars. And that was just
the beginning. 1. CHANGING TRAVEL PLANS Vacations are very different today than when I was in my 30s, where I’d jump at the chance to leave on an hour’s notice for a weekend at the beach.
Back then, I’d throw shorts, T-shirts, a bathing suit and flip-flops into a small bag and hit the road. Now, I need at least a week to plan a three-day road trip. My suitcase is usually
bulging with 10 different outfits: a sweater (even when it’s 85 degrees out because God knows, you can’t trust the weather), enough underwear to last a month, and a separate bag for the
medicine cabinet I pack (you never know when you might need anti-itch creams, aspirin, bunion correctors, a heating pad, earplugs, heartburn meds, fiber pills, a knee pad, extra floss or
sleep aids). As a young mother, I planned busy itineraries with entire days at amusement parks for the thrill of roller coaster rides and overpriced hot dogs. Today, I prefer playing cards
in a quiet campground where the only sound is the breeze whistling through the trees under a canopy of stars. Even the routes I travel are different from my past road trips. I never minded
long drives through deserted areas where radio signals were nonexistent. Now I select routes based on the number of available bathroom breaks because I have a fickle bladder. For this
reason, I keep an emergency backup in my car — a portable urinal. Yeah, 20-something me wouldn’t have been caught dead with a pee jar in my car.