Kay Meyer of Wausau, Wis., took up the clarinet again after close to 30 years, at age 50, and is glad she did. “First, for the relationships it created with other musicians just playing for the love of music and the fun of it,” she wrote. “But also for the sense of accomplishment it gave me. I was able to play some of my favorite songs at a time in my life when I could appreciate the experience so much more than when it was just the next high school concert for parents.”
Timothy Targett of Portsmouth, N.H., has returned to fly fishing in his early 70s, after 50 years off. “The rhythm and satisfaction of casting a fly to a waiting trout actually came back quickly,” he wrote. “The pleasure of spending time in beautiful surroundings, catching some spectacular fish, and socializing with friends is very Zen for me!”
Coleen Barger of Maumelle, Ark., taught French in the 1970s and early ’80s, but then went to law school and “somehow, the French language got locked behind some cerebral walls.” She’s been using the Duolingo app to reacquaint herself with the language. “It felt a little silly at first, the lessons being so elementary, but as I progressed, voilà!” she wrote, adding, “It feels like I took a wrench to a rusted, dripping faucet, and now the water is running freely again.”
Jessica Black of St. Louis gave up figure skating as a child because of the expense of hiring a coach. She recently restarted lessons at 33. “Returning to something, as a beginner, that I was so good at as a child has been liberating,” she wrote. “I feel joy and pride that as an adult, I’m able to give myself something my younger self wanted so desperately. It’s a bit like going back in time and giving myself a hug.”
Laura Street of New Haven, Conn., is rediscovering classical piano. “I’m 25, in a quarter-life crisis, finding solace from my corporate job by retracing the contours of old Chopin pieces, learning new Rachmaninoff preludes, inventing and reinventing new practice drills to strengthen my left hand,” she wrote. “In an alternate universe, this is my career. I wonder if this universe could be mine.”
