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Continue reading →: What’s the Deal with Chin Hair and Why Does It Have More Commitment than My 20s Boyfriend?The Rogue Hair That Stole the Spotlight I was well into my 40s when I met it: a lone, wiry chin hair glinting in the bathroom mirror. It seemed to appear overnight, twirling in the light like it had been there forever – truly, more committed to sticking around than…
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Continue reading →: Love in the Time of Mild CongestionIn my work as a gerontologist, I spend my days talking people through some of the more complicated pieces of aging. Chronic conditions. Care plans. The occasional family standoff over who actually lost the blood pressure cuff. Which is why it always amuses me that one of the clearest windows…
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Continue reading →: When You Don’t Know How to StopSome of us don’t rest; we just collapse decoratively. We “take a break” by switching to a different kind of work. We mistake exhaustion for momentum, because stillness feels too much like being forgotten. We’re the ones who write with a migraine, grade papers while half-asleep, or wake up at…
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Continue reading →: Core Values: Why Pilates Is the Midlife Woman’s Secret WeaponThere was a time when fitness meant bouncing around in neon spandex to the sounds of Paula Abdul. Jazzercise. Step aerobics. Even a brief, ill-advised flirtation with CrossFit (there were ropes—I won’t talk about it). Now? I lie on a mat and breathe. Slowly. With control. I’m 90 Pilates classes…
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Continue reading →: Passwords, Passcodes, and the Generational Panic AttackSomewhere in the movies, the most sophisticated villains with billions in offshore accounts and nuclear codes hidden in mountain bunkers always seemed to protect it all with a password like 1234. One keystroke, and boom — the good guys win. Meanwhile, here in real life, I need a 34-character passphrase…
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Continue reading →: Car Culture to Uber CultureFull disclosure: I live in car culture — the classic kind. My driveway is a visual reminder that with progress comes retrospect: a ’57 Chevy sits next to an e-Volvo, chrome history parked beside the quiet hum of the future. Every time I walk past them, I’m reminded that each…
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Continue reading →: Memory, Google, and the Generational CheatI can still rattle off my childhood phone number from fifty years ago without hesitation. Ask me my best friend’s cell number today, though, and I’ll freeze like a deer in headlights. I don’t dial her digits — I tap her face on my phone. My husband’s Social Security number?…
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Continue reading →: If I Am Not What I Do, Who Am I?I’ve never met a firefighter who didn’t still call himself a firefighter, even years after hanging up the gear. Same goes for teachers, nurses, soldiers, pastors, professors. Once you’ve lived inside a role that long, it doesn’t just describe what you did — it becomes who you are. That’s the…
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Continue reading →: Age Smarter, Ask Better QuestionsAging comes with questions — some practical, some ridiculous, some that keep us up at night. What’s that new ache? Did I already take my pills? Should I downsize? Can I retire? Why did I walk into this room, and why does it happen three times a day? And then…
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Continue reading →: Growing Older, Playing SmallerRemember when people said aging was supposed to mean freedom? The golden years, fewer rules, time to finally relax and do what you wanted? Yet when I look around, so much of the messaging about growing older is really about playing smaller. Smaller homes. Smaller wardrobes. Smaller ambitions. Smaller voices.…
Hello!
👋 I’m Pam Abbott-Enz, a gerontologist, educator, teacher, writer, and fellow traveler in the messy, funny, and deeply human work of growing older. Welcome to my world! Here, I share stories, sparks, and reflections from a life spent studying aging while living through its plot twists myself.
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