by Brandyn Jennings
I never thought I’d live past age nineteen. Don’t ask me why – I had a hunch. During my freshman year of college, each student in my honors composition class was asked to write an essay about where he or she would be in fifty years. I refused to do the assignment on the premise that I could be struck by lightning or a speeding motorist and not live an additional one year – much less fifty! Instead, I submitted a litany of reasons why I would not even attempt to gaze into the crystal ball and speculate about my life at age sixty-eight.
Then I met Roz.
The first time I saw Roz, I knew she was different. This surmise was not a hunch – it was based on the fact that she was the only eighty-year-old in a creative writing class full of college kids. Her brightly colored clothing coordinated perfectly from headband to shoelace, a stark contrast from the surrounding blend of drab post-modern attire. I instantly admired her courage. In my struggle to fit in, I couldn’t even make it out the door without a full face of makeup, yet here was Roz – clearly an “outsider” – in all her wrinkled glory.
As we progressed through the semester, Roz continued to differentiate herself. She used a typewriter. She asked questions. Her voice cracked when she read aloud. Her writing made me feel alive.
I remember the first story she shared with the class – the start of her autobiography. As she carefully pronounced each word, I was struck by her innate beauty. I imagined her in her youth, and as I stared through her wrinkles into her soul, I could see the young woman inside, dancing in her lust for life and learning.
My nineteenth year of life proved not to be fatal. Although I haven’t seen Roz in years, I know that her pen is still flowing, and the young woman inside of her continues to dance. I think about what my life will be like fifty years from now, and one certainty resounds – I, too, will dance.
About the Author
Brandyn Jennings (Brandy Robinson) graduated from Point Loma Nazarene College in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication. Currently, she works as the public relations manager for Mail Boxes Etc. Global Headquarters in San Diego. She and her husband Matt live in Ocean Beach, but spend a great deal of time snowboarding at their second home in Mammoth Lakes.
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