Role Model At Any Age

Role Model-Does Age Matter

Kathryn McCrary has been my role model ever since I walked into the Mt. Juliet Senior Activity. As I was trying to select an exercise I could best do with handicaps Kathryn came bounding through the front door with a smile and a big” good morning “on her way to an exercise class. Someone said she was 90. I perked right up!

This little picture of role models reminded me a lot of my life the past couple of years. My vintage age has brought me full cycle in recognizing the fast-paced world we live in. My daughter has spent many years learning from older women. Now I have switched roles with her. There are so many new techies to learn to even keep up with personal chores like banking, electronically paying bills, coupons for grocery shopping and I could go on. These are things I can learn from her. So does age really matter? Then I thought age doesn’t matter! It is about sharing with one another. The young can tutor the older ones and the older ones can mentor the younger ones.  

In April we celebrate Volunteer Day. And I honor Kathryn for being a role model for volunteers. She has been a leader in about every event in the Senior Center for years. She has supported all events and a founder of many.

Kathryn McCrary gets up, gets dressed, and shows up. She volunteers her talents with a simple attitude of a willingness to share.  She works in silence and lets her actions make her noise. So it goes in a business or team-sharing and bringing your best skills and ideas to the table. Be willing to accept other ideas if they are better than yours. It means not accepting people for their titles but what they bring to the table. It’s about respect, responsibility, accountability, and integrity. There is mentoring going on every day. The greatest successes we know is helping others learn and grow.

Pick someone you admire, write down the qualities you most admire and want to be like. Work on those characteristics daily. It is a way of learning and growing at any age.