Within days nearly 200 women had signed up. After six months we had organized 191 meet-ups with nearly 100 still to come. The average attendance was four. Rarely did anyone RSVP yes and not show up. These are actually quite amazing statistics for that particular internet platform.
There were two reasons WOW was that successful. One, each time someone joined I had an automatic welcoming email sent to her and in the message I asked if she'd like to be a co-organizer. There wasn't any cost or obligation at all, just simply a matter of posting ideas for meet-ups at her leisure. So within days of launching there were eight or ten of us posting which made the group very robust and diverse, which was the second reason for its success. The activities varied wildly from camping out on the peninsula to weekly game nights, from going to the horse races to Tai Chi.
It had been about six years since I'd formed the original WOW right around my 50th birthday. In between, obviously I'd changed a lot and what I came to realize through the second WOW group is so had my peers. (I use the word "peers" loosely; the only requirement to be in WOW is to be a 50+ woman. In this recent group the average age was probably 65 with our oldest member at 84).
What I noticed immediately was that the women's stories had changed. This could be for a whole host of reasons - in the past decade much has happened in the world, we've aged, this group was mostly suburbanites as opposed to the urban setting in my first group, and however many more variables there are. But around the campfires, the kitchens, the cafe tables, the stories that dominated were ones of suffering, loss, fear and regret.
As a writer and storyteller my ears picked up right away and I began mentally noting the themes. That led me to start researching women and aging and the stories we tell, which then led me to two topics I've not become quite devoted to: Change Your Story, Change Your Life and Post-Traumatic Growth: How to Add Ten Years to Your Life. My purpose now is to facilitate more discussions with these topics in mind and build communities where women are continually learning how to thrive in new and amazing ways.
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