William Shakespeare in As You Like It said:

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

So, as Shakespeare’s said so well, our lives go full circle. I seem to be circling back to life in a college dorm. I am 71 and had a stroke right after my last birthday. My first grandchild is coming in August. Olympia is only 60 miles from Seattle/ daughter/ grandchild but can take up to four hours on the ever-more ghastly I-5. So the time has come to move into a retirement community. I’m not wealthy and so a studio unit is my plan. I haven’t lived in such small space since being in college. Bed, closet, desk area and that’s about it. Meals and everything else are in other parts of the complex. I’ll have instant new companions, just like college – some I will bond with and some I will maybe dislike on sight! It’s expensive, like college, even though I’m not paying for tuition this time around. It’s back to the goldfish bowl of community living, of scrutiny and sometimes criticism by my dorm mates.

All that seems similar. What will be different? I will be joining people at the ends of their lives, rather than the beginnings. Some are just marking time until that end; they believe the best in their lives is past. There will be no need for me to engage my brain as I have always done so far – no classes, no term papers, no tutorials -- lots of planned activities, but only some of them cerebral. I may be lonely, although I don’t expect to be bored. I will have time available (no home care; minimal food preparation & shopping) and can spend it at the gym, writing, pursuing whatever I like, including learning to be a granny. Maybe I will find a true sweetheart, either in the complex or in the wider world of Seattle; I know who I am in a way I couldn’t have known at 18.

Despite the medical challenges I’ve experienced in retirement (a recalled hip implant, the rapid death of a beloved partner from Stage IV cancer, a stroke….) I do believe, like most new college students, that the best is yet to come. I have curiosity, energy and continued passion to make a difference in the world. I have hope for my future. I am not yet sans everything, but simply entering a new stage –conscious elderhood -- that Shakespeare didn’t know about!