I REFUSE TO BE JUST ANOTHER AGEIST STEREOTYPE

 Over the last few weeks I have been reflecting on what I am doing and why I am doing it, especially as it is just over two years since I handed over the keys of my flat in Tunbridge Wells and set off in my motorhome with my few worldly possessions that I had selected to take with me on my journey. 

I remember being filled with a mixture of fear and excitement. Everyone was saying how brave I was and I remember thinking that it did not feel brave, it just felt like the most natural thing in the world for me to do. It was something I had dreamt about for many years and here I was actually taking charge of my life and going with the flow. My plan was to have no plan but to show that it was possible to live with very few possessions and to age well and live a positive life on the road as I aged disgracefully.

I remember feeling very strongly that I wanted to challenge ageism and ageist stereotypes of what society seemed to think retired pensioners did with their lives. I was not going to be pigeonholed into what 60 years olds were supposed to look like, dress like or behave like. The message I had and the way I felt passionately about alternative ageing made me believe that the path ahead of me would just somehow evolve and that is what has been happening over the last two years.

Yes there have been many challenges along the way. Learning to live on a far smaller budget. Facing the worst storms and the worst rainfall since they started recording rainfall and a Pandemic, which no-one could have predicted. But none of this has blighted my spirits for long, not even when the pipes in the motorhome froze for a few days in the snow. I just resorted to melting snow and boiling it to make drinks and have a wash. It was just another part of my adventure that I got through.

All of this has just made me more resilient and more determined to carry on. I also realise that I am brave in certain situations. I face my fears because the feeling I get when I am through the other side is amazing. I want to inspire women to live their most positive lives and not to fear ageing or getting older. It is a privilege to age and we do not all get the opportunity to do it. So for me I am grabbing every day that I can. 

I am ever so grateful for the thousands of people who are following me on social media and my website; shuvonshuvoff.co.uk . If you want to message me or work with me, all the details are on my website and please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. I also give talks via zoom about my exploits and being fearless to inspire women.

It is so lovely to know that at least six women have been and purchased motorhomes or camper vans as a direct result of following my exploits. The tribe of followers that I interact with on social media have been a great strength to me, especially during the second lockdown, which was particularly hard on the long dark winter nights, when I was holed up in a field in Norfolk. 

Only recently I got a message on my Instagram @shuvonshuvoff from a lady who was hiring a van and going on her first ever trip, not too far from her home and she wanted to know if I had any tips as she had seen my story and was motivated by it. That fills my heart with joy and I love helping other women as much as possible to get the same joy out of life that I am able to get living my life this way. 

I have written articles for magazines and newspapers and been a guest on several blogs and podcasts to try and spread my message of positive ageing as much as I can. I am also writing my book. AGELESS,FEARLESS WOMEN;You can do it too. I hope to finish it by Christmas and then I will have to try and find a publisher because I would not be able to self fund a publication. So if you know of anyone who may be interested in publishing it please send them my way via my website.

One big positive I have seen during the two years and particularly during the second lockdown is that there are more and more women connecting and discussing the menopause, middle age, ageing, ageism, negative images of ageing and more ways that we can embrace positive living. This has only invigorated my passion to continue doing what I am doing for as long as possible, I know that there is a will out there to change and to get better images that truly reflect how we all age differently. To also change the narratives around ageing to reflect that it is a positive, not a negative. We can say NO to ANTI-AGEING PRODUCTS and ADVERTISING MESSAGES and encourage more POSITIVE and PROAGE MESSAGES within the media and advertising.

I have travelled a lot of Great Britain in the last two years, even with nine months locked up in fields during the two lockdowns, and I am fortunate to be discovering some beautiful places and to have the time to stop and really take in my surroundings, as I continue my nomadic lifestyle in my motorhome. I am blogging about it along the way. shuvonshuvoff.blogspot.com and intend to start doing more regular blogs I have met some interesting and supportive people at many of the places I have stayed, who also inspire me to keep doing what I am doing.

So here is to another year on the road embracing all the challenges that life has to offer me, including a third winter in the motorhome.

Please do contact me if you want to know more about my story.