Every time I celebrate a birthday, going up a number, I ponder ageing anew. How do I feel about getting older? Am I reluctant to admit my age? Or am I grateful to be who I am at the age I’ve reached?
I once saw a sign saying, Experienced cars for sale. Of course, this is a novel way of selling secondhand vehicles. Secondhand conjures up images of something that’s not as good as it used to be. The value of a secondhand item has decreased. But experience? Is this something we value?
What about people? Are we secondhand, our value plummeting as we age? Or does our worth increase? Do we age and become people with experience?
I’ve learnt that we need to retain our sparkle and curiosity as we get older. We must let those following along behind us know that life is still good despite the appearance of wrinkles. And that’s what I’m sharing in this week’s podcast, episode 206, A Birthday Chat. I’m also talking about experimenting and risk-taking, which are essential if we’re to continue learning and do valuable work.
Last Tuesday, my birthday, I experimented with my podcast: I recorded a video version as well as the usual audio file, testing out my new video-streaming light and using my iPhone as a webcam.
I guess I took a risk. It’s easy talking to myself with no one looking at me. Letting everyone see my face as I tell stories and share ideas and thoughts is a bit more tricky.
So, how did I go? Is my video version okay? I think it’s acceptable, but I could improve the picture quality. I’ve got an opportunity to continue experimenting!
Episode 206, A Birthday Chat, is now available on both YouTube and podcast apps.
The Audio Version
The Video Version
Show Notes
I mentioned
The Self Directed podcast with the Conrads
Episode 65 of the Self Directed podcast: Sue Elvis / Stories of an Unschooling Family
The Unschooling Together community
Podcast episode 3, Getting Older, Admitting One’s Age, Lines and Wrinkles
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
The Unschool Challenge: Kindle
The Unschool Challenge: paperback
Where You Can Find Me
Unschooling Community:Unschooling Together
Youtube: Sue Elvis
Blogs: Stories of an Unschooling Family and Wholy Souly
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stories_ofan_unschoolingfamily
Image
This is a screenshot from my video. The less-than-perfect sharpness blurred my wrinkles nicely!
Three Ways You Can Help Me
Make a donation
You could support my blog with a coffee or small donation, so that I can continue sharing unschooling thoughts, ideas and stories with you.
Buy a book
You could buy one of my books.
Leave a comment
Or you could stop by and leave me some encouraging feedback. (Thank you, Lauren, for your Instagram message!)
In episode 206, I said, “Silence begets silence.” Creating content continually without feedback is difficult. It’s easy to assume that no one cares if I write posts or make podcasts when I don’t hear from anyone. Perhaps no one will notice if I’m silent. That’s what happened after podcast episode 204. I didn’t return at the end of January after the Australian summer holidays as promised, and no one said, “Hey, Sue where are you? Are you going to make a new episode?” And so I began to wonder if my podcasting days were over. Perhaps it’s time to put away my mic. Go do something else. And that would be okay. Everything comes to an end eventually, doesn’t it?
So, what do you think?
