Best advice you ever got

There's not a specific verbatim piece of wisdom I have in mind, but I definitely gravitate to my mom's general exhortation to get a college degree. When I was in high school it just seems like a given and I didn’t work hard enough for it when I did go back for a bachelors, it was from culinary school and that opened up a whole new career as a sommelier. Later I went back for a masters degree and that’s looking like it’s gonna open up a second career!

As you age, I don't think you can separate which lessons came from your upbringing vs which you adopted through experiences (the old nurture vs nature debate). And as I approach 65, the lessons keep coming - mostly through joyful experiences: seeing my children find success, having grandchildren I love and work that fulfills me. And the perspective presents, too, like suddenly losing a friend my age to a medical condition no one was aware of. It makes me appreciate every encounter with my family.

I think about the advice that someone I interviewed, and she said that a relationship is a teeter totter: sometimes you need someone that is grounded while you are flying high and vice versa.