In my wildest dreams for most of my life,  I never imagined that I would be a watercolor artist.  I've always appreciated and admired folks who could create art. But, it never occured  to me that I could learn how to do it.  However, around New Years Day back in 2019, at age 68, I decided to take watercolor classes with a friend and after countless hours of painting, here I am.  Perhaps the reason it never occured to me to try it as a hobby is that it simply wasn't my time to pursue it.  Let me explain....

For the most part, my entire life has been a series of 12 year cycles in which each dozen years or so I spend my time doing a job and activities quite different from the other 12 year periods.  I didn't figure this phenomenon out until fairly recently. 

For example, the obvious first cycle was my public school days (ages 5-17) when I attended Buford City Schools in the 1st through 12th grade.  I grew up in a wonderful family with a musician mother and a business owning father who both gave me gifts that have helped me be relatively happy and successful in my life.  I also had 4 siblings and a host of cousins since the Buford area of NW Gwinnett County is where my father's side of the family has resided since back about 1800, 70 years before there was even a town of Buford.  But I digress.

During my second cycle (ages 18-30), I spent a few years at Georgia College at Milledgeville but dropped out because I didn't like the projectory my major, sociology, was sending me.  I moved back to Atlanta, worked in sales and,  by some fluke of fate, moved to Europe when I was 22.  I always say living abroad and especially Europe was my real education.  I found work doing all kinds of things from being a janitor to teaching GED to soldiers. I lived there for 4 wonderful years, met and married my wife, and traveled to dozens of countries.  We moved back to Georgia when I was 28 and after another stint in sales, I decided I really wanted to be a public school teacher.

So, during my third 12 year cycle (ages 30-44), I went to Georgia State University  and got my teaching degree and at age 32 began teaching middle school in Gwinnett and later Forsyth counties.  I absolutely loved my years of teaching.  I worked in some wonderful schools with terrific people and loved watching my young students grow and thrive. My wife and I even taught adults GED classes for about 5 years during this period.  

But, after about a dozen years, I was ready to move on.  So during my fourth twelve year cycle (ages 44-56), a natural segway was to apply my knowledge of curriculum and use it to produce opportunities for students to learn outside the classroom setting.  I created Tours That Teach. Inc. for this purpose and became an educational tour operator. During these years, we took literally tens of thousands of students and teachers to places ranging from Savannah, Charleston, the space coast of Florida, Atlanta or Chattanooga and up the coast to Williamsburg, Washington DC and New York City.  It was a fun sometimes hectic lifestyle but after a dozen years, I was ready to move on to something closer to home.

Thus began my fifth twelve year cycle (ages 56-68) or our era of volunteering for a lot of different things.  It started when my wife and I took classes and became Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists. Once completed, we spent many days working in public gardens, serving on committees  or teaching children about gardening in a Junior Master Gardener class we helped start. I also taught classes to adults on vermiculture (using worms to create organic plant food from kitchen waste).  Perhaps our favorite volunteer job was feeding the trout a couple of times a month at Smithgall Woods.  In addition, we volunteered at a couple of state parks in other ways as was needed.  

Towards the end of this volunteering period, I served on the board at the Sautee Nacoochee Cultural Center near Helen which has 2 art galleries, a world class pottery museum and lots of art activities.  It was here that I began to think about being an artist. And as Paul Harvey used to say in his radio broadcasts, "Now you know the rest of the story."

Watercoloring is a perfect activity for someone my age (72) and I'd enthusiastically encourage everyone to try it or any other artform that appeals to you.  Since I've been at it for 5 years now, I still have 7 more years to be engaged in it if my twelve year cycle pattern holds true.  But, I don't think so!  I believe being a watercolorist will be my profession for the rest of my days on earth and what a wonderful way to spend my last years!