Reinventing My 60s: Tales of a Serial Reinvention-ista | How My Reinvention Journey Led to Transforming Young Lives in Their Community with Patricia Melton

By the time we reach our 60s, many of us are reinvention pros - we've reinvented ourselves so many times that we've lost track!

Each reinvention is part of our journey to evolve into who we are today.

And when we're open to "serial reinvention" - giving ourselves permission to become our best selves through reinvention time and time again - anything is possible.

Just ask my guest Patricia Melton - community builder, young adult cheerleader, and a self-proclaimed, "reinvention-ista".  She has reinvented her professional, personal and athletic lives many times over.

From decorated college athletic to Olympic hopeful to passionate cyclist in her 60s.

From innovative educator to a curator of "adulting" - helping young people grow and transform as they invent who they want to be.

From an active community member to a key partner in changing the landscape of educational opportunity in New Haven, Connecticut.

At 63, she is brimming with wisdom and inspiration about her reinvention journey!

I love what she shares about:

✅How our biggest challenges can spark new possibilities for personal growth
✅Why faith and belief help to build resilience on our journey
✅How the pandemic created new opportunities to reinvent herself including as a passionate cyclist after 60
✅Why asking "who am I?" and knowing ourselves are key to reinvention
✅How embracing a new community has transformed life in powerful ways

And so much more! Patricia is modest about her contributions but has truly helped to shape education possibilities in the New Haven community and so many other places she's lived through her talents and reinventions.

Pop in your earbuds and get ready for a treat with this insightful and accomplished Reinvention Rebel!

Connect with Patricia via New Haven Promise

Mentioned in this episode:

• Reinvent Yourself: Why You Should Do It Scared and Do It Anyway! | How to Take Action in the Midst of Your Fears

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Transcript

Patricia Melton: We will fall down and we will fail and life is getting back up. You will need your community, you need your family, you'll need your ride and die girlfriend. You will need all of that. And so, make sure that you surround yourself with those people who care about you, who believe in you, because you will be challenged by life. You will fail many, many times. Many of those failures will open up doors that you couldn't have seen that need to be open.

[Reinvention Rebels theme]

Wendy Battles: Welcome to Reinvention Rebels, stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reimagined life on their own terms to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, Wendy Battles. Ready for a dose of inspiration? Let's get to it. 

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast. I'm your host, Wendy. I'm so glad you're here and if you are a first-time listener, welcome aboard. This is the place to come for information and inspiration about how we can reinvent ourselves really at any age or any stage. I have the privilege of focusing on amazing women between 50 and 90 who are reinventing themselves in interesting, clever, really juicy ways to find new purpose and possibilities. This podcast gives you a little insight into how they've evolved, the path they've taken, and how they've gotten to where they are today, sometimes with lots of challenges, amid all of the forward progress.

Today, you are in for such a treat. And I'm going to introduce my guest, Patricia Melton, in just a moment. First though, I want to check in and see if you had a chance to listen to last week's episode. Many of you know that the theme for this season of the podcast, Season 5 is "Do it scared and do it anyway." I know. I've got fears, you probably do too. Sometimes, we can let them get in our way of stepping into our dreams and what we're meant to do and be, or we can decide that even with those fears, we're going to go for it. We're going to make forward progress. 

On this first solo episode of the season, I talked about what does it actually mean to do it scared and why should we do it? Why is that so important to helping achieve our dreams? It was a short, but really interesting episode beginning to look under the hood so to speak, and thinking about what does that mean if we actually do that? So, I've linked to it in the show notes. I encourage you to take a listen and come on this journey with me this season as we all begin to think about. I would like to take on this idea of, do it scared, do it anyway, and what might that look like?

You're going to hear from a lot of different women who are doing just that. They have some fears, they're doing it anyway, and they are evolving in really beautiful ways. One of those people that I am so thrilled to interview this season is someone who I admire and respect deeply. For those of you that are listening from New Haven, Connecticut, you probably already know Patricia Melton. You probably know the amazing person that she is and how she is helping to transform our community with the work that she does. 

For those of you that don't, you're going to really get a window into her mindset and how she's reinvented herself. But you'll notice in our interview that she's an incredibly humble and modest person. It doesn't tell the true story of her background and what she does. So, I want to tell you a little bit about her. She is an award-winning innovative educator who has worked really hard to increase educational access for communities across a variety of sectors including in colleges, traditional public, independent schools. She is president of this really great organization in New Haven called New Haven Promise. It is a place-based scholarship support and economic development engine that funds up to full tuition at in-state public colleges, Connecticut Colleges or Universities for deserving high school students. But that doesn't even tell the whole story about what she does to motivate and inspire young people in many different ways. 

Not only is she President of New Haven Promise, but she also is an accomplished athlete. She is a community builder. She has won numerous civic and different community awards, as well as athletic awards, and has come back for a third time to New Haven. She was here as an undergraduate at Yale University, then came back as she was training for the Olympics, and has been here for the last 10 years. So, I am really excited about our conversation and for you to meet Patricia Melton. 

[music]

Wendy Battles: Today, you are in for a treat. Patricia Melton, welcome to The Reinvention Rebels' guest chair. 

Patricia Melton: Thank you, Wendy. It's so wonderful to be here with you. 

Wendy Battles: I am so excited that I've got you in the guest chair. I bet you can imagine I have a lot of questions for you about your reinvention journey. I want to start in a simple way. I know that you reinvented yourself many times in many different ways. Tell me, if you would, about your most recent reinvention in your 60s.

Patricia Melton: Where should I begin? I would say that I've reinvented myself athletically. I was a very avid athlete, track runner in college and in my early career. But now, I've become this amazing avid bicyclist. I love what it does for my mind and for my body and people know me for cycling all around this fabulous city where I live. In addition to that, I reinvented myself, as I would call it a curator of adulting.

Wendy Battles: Curator of adulting.

Patricia Melton: Yes, I'm an adulting curator. 

Wendy Battles: What does that mean?

Patricia Melton: Yes, what it means is I work with young folks, young adults from the age of 14 up through their early to mid 20s. My role in my organization is to assist them as they're exploring who they want to be in life when were 30, 40 years out.

Wendy Battles: Yeah, that's such a pivotal thing. Even just having someone in your life that can help guide you like that, it's like, "I want that," especially someone that is very relatable. So, I can imagine that you have a huge impact on these young people.

Patricia Melton: I think that it's a great inflection and reflection point to be down the road looking back 40 years and being able to reflect on my own adulting process, but to be able to structure and curate experiences to assist an upcoming generation for generations because I've been at this for 10 years now. 

Wendy Battles: Wow.

Patricia Melton: It's an incredible gift and really the best job in the world, the best job that I've had being able to do something like this. It energizes me and it challenges me in my own journey as I am moving into my mid 60s. 

Wendy Battles: I think it's fascinating that you have come to this new place where you have the ability to be of service to these young people. I'm curious about how you think your past reinventions help prepare you for this one, where you're doing this adulting and you're curating these experiences and really helping guide and mentor these young people. How have the past experiences helped prepare you when you reinvented yourself for this current iteration of your life, both your job and also your physical reinvention, which I can see, because you were this amazing athlete, so I know you've always been active. But in what way do you think the past has helped prepare you for the present? 

Patricia Melton: Just yesterday, I was speaking to a group of high school women, young ladies about my past. There were several messages. I think I made five points. In sharing my journey and the lessons that I see over and over again because a new group of high schoolers comes into college and then we see them through college. So, I do see a pattern. That pattern is that, everything you will experience will be useful to you in your journey. It will weave in some amazing macrame and pattern to your life in terms of your path of where you're going to go to. That certainly has happened to me. Being a first-generation person to college, I was the first person in my family to go to college, and I wondered like, "How did I get here?" 

Well, I got here with a lot of love, people who love me, who care about me, communities, structured programs like the one that I'm fortunate and blessed to oversee now. But all of it has gone into this sort of mixture, and it's come out at the other end and it seems like it's just right. Not too hot, not too cold. 

Wendy Battles: [laughs] Love that.

Patricia Melton: Not too hot, not too soft. 

Wendy Battles: I love that girl. 

Patricia Melton: It's mixing together and coming out on the other end of this journey. So, my message to these young ladies, just they're 14, 15, 16 years into their journey is that it will all be useful. To lean into that, don't worry too much. Are you too far to the left, to the right, not enough? Because you have a nice runway and you'll be able to work it in to that mix in a way that will get you where you need to be. 

Wendy Battles: Yeah. I love the image that you used of the macrame of all these different life experiences coming together, because I think that sometimes when we're going through things or we're reinventing ourselves when we're younger and things don't work out, it's hard to see how things might fit together in the future. It just often feels very disappointing, and it hasn't worked out the way I wanted it to work out. I know it's taken me a long time to see how all those pieces fit together. I had to have a lot of different experiences. I've also found that sometimes when things didn't work out, it was all for my greater good to help prepare me for this bigger thing later on, which, of course, at the moment, you can't see, and it just feels crushing.

So, I love that wisdom that you shared with these young ladies that it's a whole series of things that will work together over time and not to be so worried about it, because I think we can get stuck in. We try so hard and then we get so upset. 

Patricia Melton: Right. The other wisdom that I shared with them, I shared a couple of real heartbreaks in my life and that I didn't really know how I would get through. I said one thing that we will all have in common is that we will have multiple heartbreaks and we will fall down and we will fail, and life is giving back up. 

Wendy Battles: Yes. 

Patricia Melton: You will need your community, you'll need your family, you'll need your ride and die girlfriend. You will need all of that. And so, make sure that you surround yourself with those people who care about you, who believe in you, because you will be challenged by life. You will fail many, many times. Many of those failures will open up doors that you couldn't have seen that need to be open to once again get you where you need to be on your journey.

Wendy Battles: I love that because what it says to me, Patricia, is that you are a truth teller that you have reinvented yourself in this way to help young people and help them understand, which is hard at that age because you're like, "Okay, sure." Sometimes, we're like, "Ah, whatever." People try to tell us things and we just can't hear it. But I think that that wise voice sharing some of those life lessons is immensely helpful. So, I appreciate how you reinvented yourself in a way to help serve other people and help share these lessons that are really invaluable, because there are so many challenges. I know that sometimes we start out thinking it'll be smooth sailing or I see so and so when it seems to be working for that person and why isn't it working the same way for me, but we're all on our own journey? So, hearing those messages is very impactful, I would imagine, for these young people.

Patricia Melton: I hope so. They look like they were paying attention. [laughs] 

Wendy Battles: I love it. That's all we can do. That's all we can do. I know that there are a lot of lessons we learn along the way as we reinvent ourselves. I know that, like me, you have reinvented yourself many times in many different ways. As you mentioned, kind of weaved these different experiences, the ups, the downs, the failures and triumphs together to create where you are today. If you had to boil it down to the most important lesson you've learned from reinventing yourself whether it was recently or over time, what would that be? 

Patricia Melton: I'd say to have faith. Faith and belief that you will be resilient. I've been resilient even in my darkest moments where I didn't see a path. It's in those moments when you have to give yourself over. You just have to let go because it's not the solution or getting to the other side. It's not going to come from inside of you. It's going to come from something much bigger than you. So, to not try to over control situations. I think that's the biggest thing, to really have faith, if you have faith. Because even though, we're educated and some of us have formal education, some of us have just common sense.

Wendy Battles: Right. 

Patricia Melton: But the process of the journey, there's more to it than what we can even touch. There's so much more to it. I think letting these other influences do their job is really important.

Wendy Battles: Yes, I agree and I know how hard it is sometimes. I know that sometimes our thinking mind, we feel like we can figure it out, and strategize, and we can do that. But to your point, it's often bigger than ourselves. There are other forces at work. It takes a lot sometimes to make that leap of faith, to trust that things are going to work out. But I think that when we are able to figure out how to do that, and I know everyone, perhaps, gets to that in their own time and way and place, but I feel like there's a lot of freedom in that feeling once you can believe that things are working out. 

Patricia Melton: I'm not talking about magical thinking. I'm definitely not talking about magical thinking, but I am talking about faith. 

Wendy Battles: Yeah. 

Patricia Melton: Because there are so many things in this world that we cannot explain. Why did COVID happen? There are certainly studies and theories and whatnot, but who ever thought that our world literally would come to a standstill in our lifetime? We've never seen anything like that. 

Wendy Battles: Right. 

Patricia Melton: We're still very much in COVID. There's just like 9/11 changed our lives in terms of how we travel and as a nation, that sense of that we're vulnerable. No, we're not just isolated, we are very much connected to the rest of the world. I think COVID, the pandemic, really brought us all together in our humanity. It really humbled us and now we're trying to make sense of that. What does it all mean and how are we going to be in the world in this post pandemic? We're very early. I don't think we're going to know for years. [crosstalk] 

Wendy Battles: I think you're right. Yeah. It's very true. In some ways, it's been an opportunity even though it's been difficult on many different levels, but it's also been an opportunity for many people to reinvent themselves for lots of different reasons, right? 

[laughter]

Patricia Melton: We got tons of podcasters out there, but this is what was needed. We had to do something. We were locked in our homes and we're sociable beings. That's who we are, so much of our fabric, and I do think folks had to reflect and are still reflecting. Things, they're not going to go back the way they were.

Wendy Battles: Yeah.

Patricia Melton: I think we already see that with the workforce. It is different. 

Wendy Battles: Yeah. It really is different. Sometimes, it's hard to grasp that our world's at a 180 and it is different and it feels different and we move through this world differently. It's a lot for anyone, I think, to absorb. Was it during the pandemic that you started cycling? 

Patricia Melton: Yes. 

Wendy Battles: I love it. 

Patricia Melton: I had to get out. 

Wendy Battles: Yeah.

Patricia Melton: I had to get out. I got out in our city and it was like a ghost town. There were no cars in the city around the downtown area. I had to get out. I had to get out, walk the streets. I started cycling. I cycled for an entire year. It didn't matter. There were only, I think, two days that I did not cycle and that was when we got a huge bunch of snow, and I think something else, but I cycled every day. I cycled many days up to the top of East Rock. [laughs] 

Wendy Battles: Wow. 

Patricia Melton: I can’t believe I did it. But now, I love cycling. I did it today. I have to get out. I love being outdoors. It's just a way to connect to my environment, to nature. I saw deer. I just saw all sorts of things out there. That encouraged me, particularly, at a time when we couldn't be with our friends. 

Wendy Battles: Yeah.

Patricia Melton: [crosstalk] wasn't quite capturing our need to connect. It wasn't capturing my need to connect.

Wendy Battles: I think there's something about the way you went about that. You saw the situation. Did you already have a bike before the pandemic or were you just inspired to get one during it? 

Patricia Melton: It was very difficult to get the bike during the pandemic. That's [crosstalk] reality.

Wendy Battles: Right. That's what I remember.

Patricia Melton: I had a bike-

Wendy Battles: Okay, good. 

Patricia Melton: -before the pandemic. I just got out and started biking. 

Wendy Battles: But you just became a passionista about biking, like all in it, which I love, because I think that when we find our thing so much to me of reinventing ourselves in a way that sticks, that we want to keep doing it is tuning into, what is it I love to do? What makes me happy? When do I feel my best? How can I shine? That's what I hear you saying about biking. That is the elixir for you that helps you do other great things in the rest of your life to be able to be present for young people that you serve, who you support and help mentor. It seems to me that one reinvention helps this other reinvention.

Patricia Melton: It does. I can remember now that I think I was in the fourth grade. No, I was younger than that. I think I was in the second or third grade, and I have a sister who's four years older than I am, and she left home but her bike was left behind. I was not big enough to actually sit on the seat and have my feet-- [crosstalk] 

Wendy Battles: [laughs] 

Patricia Melton: The bike was handed down to me. It was there. I remember I didn't have training wheels because this was not a bike for someone in the sixth grade or so. So, I just took the bike. I could barely hold the bike up. [Wendy laughs] I took it to the top of the hill, and then got on it, and just stood on the pedals, and coasted down the hill, and that's how I learned. 

Wendy Battles: All right. [laughs] So, you're self-taught in [crosstalk] 

Patricia Melton: I'm self-taught. I definitely didn't learn with training wheel. 

Wendy Battles: I love it. 

Patricia Melton: I rode. I can remember riding around the neighborhood. I guess, then people didn't worry so much about their kids. This was a long time ago. It gave me this sense of freedom. I was able to explore. And now, like I said, with the pandemic, I was able to get out and explore because no one was outside. [laughs] 

Wendy Battles: Right. 

Patricia Melton: Very few people were outside. I could just go out every day and explore. Go up to East Rock and just stand up there and look over the city where it's just so beautiful there. You can see for miles around 360 degrees, just take in the city. It was wonderful to keep me grounded. The animals were out and about. [laughs] They didn't know that there was a pandemic going on. It was wonderful. It was wonderful. 

Then see others. I did see folks walking around, and some other bikers and whatnot, but that really was able to take me through. I still do it. I use it to meditate. It just calms me down. It puts me in a certain mental space. Yeah, I have become quite the biker. 

[music]

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I think it's amazing as someone who, like, I don't like biking in the city. There's too much traffic. I have all these things about it. So, I love that you're out doing it and that it's such a passionate thing, plus I see this theme in your life, Patricia, about exploration that started when you were younger and just has carried over into adulthood. I think that's great, because sometimes, I think we give up on things, or we think we can't do them, or we get to a certain age and maybe we think, "I'm too old to reinvent myself. I'm too old to follow my dreams." You are a great example of how we can get started at any age. Whatever it is, there really aren't any limits if we decide we want to do something. 

Patricia Melton: Yes, I agree with that. We can reinvent ourselves. I think we do. We reinvent ourselves in a year. [laughs] When the New Year comes around, we're trying to reinvent ourselves. 

Wendy Battles: We are. [laughs] 

Patricia Melton: We're going to be 5 pounds lighter or whatever. 

Wendy Battles: Yeah.

Patricia Melton: We have our New Year's resolution. I know not everyone does it, but a lot of people use that as an opportunity to say, "Hey, I think I want to explore something. I want to experience something on my bucket list. I want to reinvent myself. Definitely, I'm one of those individuals constantly thinking about how I can experience something new and different." 

When I decided to move here 10 years ago, I had this image in my hand and I said, "Okay, this is an opportunity." Every time I move for a career move and I go to a new city, it's an opportunity to reinvent. When I came back here to New Haven, which was a choice of mine, I wanted to come back here. I was living in the Midwest and I said, "I'm going to be like Mary Tyler Moore. 

[laughter] 

Wendy Battles: "I'm going to do it." 

Patricia Melton: Yes, absolutely. I said, "I'm going to go and totally reinvent myself." Now, did I, I have to think about that. I did, actually.

Wendy Battles: Yeah.

Patricia Melton: There are a couple of things that I decided that I wanted to-- I guess, this imagery of Mary Tyler Moore was about going to a city and truly embracing that community in a way that I hadn't done in any of the other cities that I had been to. I've been to a number of different cities. So, when I came here, New Haven-- Usually, I'm in a very big city. Indianapolis was my last locale. So, New Haven is just big enough. It is a city. It's not a town, but it's big enough, but not too big that you can't wrap your arms around it. 

Wendy Battles: Yes. 

Patricia Melton: I will say that as I move around the city, I definitely feel a sense of community here. I can walk in some place and folks will say, "That's the promise lady."

[laughter] 

Patricia Melton: Like, you go to Cheers and everybody knows your name. And so, I'm not living in a city where a lot of people amazingly enough know my name. 

Wendy Battles: Yeah, they do. 

Patricia Melton: I've gotten this new sense of community in a way. I've invented that or rather become part of a community as part of my reinvention journey that I didn't necessarily have in other locales where I've been. So, I'd say that's one very important element of my reinvention story here in New Haven. 

Wendy Battles: I think that sense of community is so important as we're reinventing ourselves, because sometimes, I think we feel like we have to do it all by ourselves. What I've come to realize is that we can have, what I call, A Reinvention Dream Team. We have our cheerleaders, the people that we know, like you said, your good girlfriends, you're ride or die, the people that are always going to be in your corner, which I think is really important as we're going through that process, because not every day is a great day. Not every day are we full speed ahead. Some days, we question ourselves, we have doubts. We think, "Can we do this no matter what that thing is that we want to do?" 

So, having that sense of community, people that can bolster you when you need that. People you can bounce ideas off of. People where you can just truly be yourself when you're having not your best day. That to me is all part of that idea of community that supports us as we figure out and we go through the process of reinventing ourselves, because I don't think it's necessarily a straight line. I think that often we travel a circuitous path like, I don’t know, some crazy bike path to get to where we're going. 

Patricia Melton: [laughs] 

Wendy Battles: It's usually not all perfectly tied together, so community is so powerful. 

Patricia Melton: One of the things that comes to mind is, I remember, we made a video when I first came here in our first celebration of students who received the scholarship. In this video, I can remember what I said then because it relates and it's still very much a central theme of what the organization that I'm able to lead is all about. So, in this video, I said, "What does it look like when an entire city embraces its young people chew through and brings them back from college?" In other words, we wrap this amazing support system. "What does that look like?" That's what we've been building. Not just the team that I lead and I'm privileged to lead, but the partners that we're in collaboration with.

As we've had this vision, that's a lot of my reinvention journey in this city is learning from this what community really means and being able to incorporate, not just as someone leading this organization, having a team, really having to talk the talk and walk the walk. It's a recurring theme, because it's exactly what I said. What you just said, I said to these young women. I said that, "You are going to need this community. You're going to need a community like who's going to be on your bench."

Wendy Battles: Yes.

Patricia Melton: You're going to need your girlfriend, you're going to need your parents, you're going to need this professional networks. You're going to need all of that. You're going to want to fill that bitch out. Then you also need your own personal-- you can't be just completely immersed. You're going to need that private time just to reflect as well.

Wendy Battles: Yeah, all that you said is so right on, especially, what you've just said about that time to reflect, because I think we live in a world that is very busy, where we're often out and about. Not everybody, but many of us. Looking at your life and mind, we're very busy people. I can easily spend all my time doing external stuff and not necessarily working on Wendy on the inside, Wendy that needs to do what you're talking about to get more quiet, to reflect, to help me on that journey, to do a lot of that internal work. I know when we're young and you're talking to the young people you work with, I know some of those things are hard to get. It's hard to-- "Okay, I'm going to do this internal work, it's not like I was thinking that when I was 16."

Patricia Melton: [giggles] 

Wendy Battles: But looking back now and looking at the many reinventions I've gone through, I see how this internal work and this idea that you talked about, about getting quiet and reflecting is a really important part, I believe, of reinventing ourselves of getting to know ourselves. 

Patricia Melton: It definitely is. We are, as I said before, we're definitely social animals, but we get to know who we are not just in relationship with other folks, relationship with our parents, relationship with that special someone, our entire existence is about relationship- 

Wendy Battles: Yeah, it is.

Patricia Melton: -of some sort. 

Wendy Battles: Yeah.

Patricia Melton: Part of the mystery is just even going inside to know who am I. I've learned a lot about myself here in this city. It was really, I would say, my attraction to returning here, because this isn't the first time. This is certainly the longest time that I've been in this city. I came as an undergrad. So, I was here for four years. But it was very insular behind the walls of this university that I was attending. Then I came back for two years, but I was very focused. That's when I was training, trying to chase that dream of making the Olympic team. Now I've come back, but the reason that I came back here is because there was unfinished business, closure that I needed to do and it was all internal. It was all internal. It's been successful, but it's taken 10 years, I've been here 10 years. 

I would say that when I came in 2012 and now it's 2023, it's going on 11, I guess, maybe 11 in August, I'm in a different place in knowing myself, which is wonderful to know who you are. I think maybe we spend a lifetime doing that. I'm not sure for me, it's been a lifetime.

Wendy Battles: I think so. I think this is a life long journey of getting to know ourselves and appreciating ourselves, loving ourselves. I think that all those things in a world where again, we're so focused outside ourselves that turning that lens on ourselves, which can be difficult, because I think there're often things we don't want to see, or we maybe don't like, or those darker places of ourselves that we can't appreciate. But I'm very much appreciating how you have gone on this journey and you've done this work to arrive to where you are today. I think that's impactful for any of us. When again, we're open and we're willing and we trust that we can figure things out. That's what it feels like you have done. As you said, you've gotten closure in this particular chapter. You brought it full circle. 

I really like hearing that because so often, at least for me, I've started things, Patricia. I've had great ideas. Then I'm like, "Well, that's not going to work out" or "Ah, I'm not going to do that anymore." For different reasons, I've had reinventions that I haven't been able to get through. But again, it goes back to what you said. It's all preparing us for often something bigger later on.

Patricia Melton: Yes, I believe that. No, it's all for something. [laughs] 

Wendy Battles: Yeah. I know we can't see it.

Patricia Melton: I just know when I get to the end, not to be cryptic or anything-

Wendy Battles: Yeah. [laughs] 

Patricia Melton: -none of us know. 

Wendy Battles: Right. None of us know. 

Patricia Melton: We might have two days, or we might have two years, or we may have five--

Wendy Battles: Right. We have no idea. 

Patricia Melton: I just know when I do get to the end, I want to be able to say I lived a good life. I experienced all the things that I wanted to experience. I was the type of friend that I envision myself being to my friends and good sister, not a good sister, but just had a fulfilling experience. I can have some satisfaction in looking back and saying, "The time on this earth meant something to someone and to me." And it maybe it's most important and it meant something to me. [laughs] 

Wendy Battles: When I think that sense of trying to live without regret is a theme that I see in the women that I interview in Reinvention Rebels that they have this desire, they are interested in pursuing those things that light them up when sometimes they don't know what path they're on or where it will lead, but they're curious. They definitely have that attitude that you do that I don't want to-- when I'm 85 or however old, say, "If only I had." So, instead, they do something about it. I think that's the difference between what I call a reinvention rebel, someone who truly goes after her dreams and her goals and finds a way and does that personal work and uncovers things because it is a journey versus someone who's like, "Mm, well, maybe one day or I might get there." So, I think there's a big difference and you have that mindset of a reinvention rebel that seeking curious, "I am going to live the best life I can," mindset that I believe really makes a big difference and feeling fulfilled and feeling personally fulfilled with our lives.

Patricia Melton: Those are good words. I like to hear that. 

[laughter] 

Patricia Melton: I listen to other episodes and podcasts. There's something, there's a certain-- It is not fearless, because I wouldn't call myself fearless. Or rather, maybe I moved because of fear, where you're like, "I got to get out of this situation." 

Wendy Battles: Yes.

Patricia Melton: I want something so bad that I'm just going to jump.

Wendy Battles: Yeah, I have been there before. 

Patricia Melton: [crosstalk] I'll land- [laughs] 

Wendy Battles: Yeah, right. 

Patricia Melton: [crosstalk] -where I need to land, but I can't just stay in this place. 

Wendy Battles: I always feel like that some action is better than no action, that when we do something, whatever that is, even if it's just one small step on one day to get us moving, that for me is so important about reinvention to just get into action. If you had to share advice with our listeners and I know that some people who are listening have reinvented themselves many times, like the two of us have. There are other people that are saying, "Well, I'm older and I like this idea of reinvention, but I'm not sure where to start. It seems maybe a little daunting." What advice would you have for someone who wants to dip their toe in, but they're not sure where to start on their reinvention journey?

Patricia Melton: Just start, [laughs] just start, just start. I know as an athlete, there are so many days that I did not feel like moving out that door. I just didn't. I had to dissociate myself from my body and just say, "Just do it." I hate to say it just like Nike, "Just do it." That's exactly it. 

Wendy Battles: [laughs] 

Patricia Melton: Do something. Just do it.

Wendy Battles: Yeah, do something. Yeah, just do something. 

Patricia Melton: Obviously, a person has probably thought about it, thought about it, thought about it, but in the end, yeah, just showing up.

Wendy Battles: Showing up. 

Patricia Melton: I say it so many times, "Half the battle is just getting out the door."

Wendy Battles: Truly is.

Patricia Melton: Just taking that step. You only can take 2 steps, but eventually, you'll be able to take 10 steps-

Wendy Battles: Absolutely.

Patricia Melton: -to start small and just do it, just begin. It's simple. It's not too complicated. 

Wendy Battles: No, but I think that's often what we need. I think we often overcomplicate things when they don't have to be so complicated. So, keeping it simple is a powerful thing. As we're wrapping up, I have to ask you, if you gave your reinvention journey, your multifaceted reinvention journey a theme, Patricia, what would that be?

Patricia Melton: Well, maybe it would be playing on a word that you've already introduced, which is reinvention. I've reinvented myself so many times. I just can tell it must be 14 times. 

Wendy Battles: [laughs] 

Patricia Melton: I consider myself a reinventionista. That's my thing because I'm constantly reinventing myself. 

Wendy Battles: I like that, a reinventionista.

Patricia Melton: Constantly, reinventionista.

Wendy Battles: That is a new word, ooh, Patricia Melton, reinventionista.

Patricia Melton: Mm, mm.

Wendy Battles: I love that. I cannot thank you enough for joining me in the Reinvention Rebels' guest chair. This has been so much fun and such a pleasure to hear about your journey, the twists and turns, the resilience that you've had to keep on going, how you've worked through the valleys, as well as the peaks, and created this really amazing life. I know that there are people listening who are saying, "I want to follow Patricia. How can I find her?" Where can people find you or reach out to you on social media or otherwise? 

Patricia Melton: Oh, absolutely. Google me.

[laughter] 

Patricia Melton: Google has an answer for everything. I'm at New Haven Promise. I'm right here. I'm very visible. I live in New Haven, Connecticut. It's really not difficult to find me. People send me emails all the time. I'm very public and very accessible.

Wendy Battles: You are, you're there and doing amazing things. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Patricia. 

Patricia Melton: Thank you, Wendy.

Wendy Battles: We've been talking about this for a while. 

Patricia Melton: We have.

Wendy Battles: We finally made it happen. I am so excited to talk to you and hear about your journey and the wisdom that you shared. So much wonderful wisdom for people of any age, but especially, for us over 50s that are thinking about reinvention. Such great wisdom you shared to really encourage and inspire us into action, so thank you. 

Patricia Melton: Thank you. It has been a wonderful exercise in thinking about those reinventions, all those reinventions and the journey. As I help our young people to invent themselves, maybe they're not-- They're so young on their journey. They're inventing themselves.

Wendy Battles: Yes.

Patricia Melton: But as they get up to 25, 30, they're going to start on the reinvention journey. [laughs] 

Wendy Battles: Right. Exactly, exactly. So, you're just giving them a little wisdom now that might help them and maybe avoid some of the detours we ran into. So, I like that, launching them on their journey. 

Patricia Melton: Yes. Thank you so much, Wendy. 

Wendy Battles: Thank you. 

Patricia Melton: It's wonderful. 

[music]

Wendy Battles: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a wrap with the amazing Patricia Melton. I hope you feel inspired, I hope you see new possibilities for your own reinvention journey, listening to her story, and see that we can inspire, and motivate, and change, and reinvent at any time, at any age, or any stage. If this sparked something in you, I want to encourage you to listen to my audio. Five questions to spark your curiosity and inspire your reinvention rebel journey. Because, just like Patricia, we can all lean into reinventing ourselves. This simple audio gives you five questions to start that journey. Five questions to think a little bit about what might be possible for you. Details are in the show notes. And I cannot wait to see you back here next week for another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast. Until then, keep shining your light. The world needs you and everything you have to offer.

Hey, Rebel, if this episode inspired you to think about what's possible in your life, I'll share a little secret. Any of us can reinvent ourselves no matter where we are in our lives, any age, any stage. We just have to decide to get started. Here's a super simple way for you to get going with your reinvention dreams. Download my audio, five questions to spark your curiosity and inspire your reinvention journey. I share five key questions that will spur your thoughts thinking, help you uncover your dreams, and motivate you to take action. Because if not now, when? Details in the show notes. Let's get inspired together. 

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