Laura Harper

Age 56

My favorite thing about being a woman over 40 is that I have let go of many of the people and things that I told myself were “needed” verses “wanted” and I am much happier about the people and things that I have in my life. For me (over 50) was freeing myself from external expectations so I can enjoy who I actually am.

I am living my most extraordinary life by living my life as I want it to be! I have a wonderful family whom I love dearly. I travel to places around the world. I have fabulous friends and make it a priority to schedule time with them, instead of letting time slip by. Yes, life can be a drudge sometimes, but I read somewhere that anticipation of a future fun plan is actually part of the enjoyment so I have incorporated thinking about the next extraordinary event into every day and it adds sparkle to even a mundane day.

In the next decade, I aspire to get my son through his degree without debt so he can start his career without student loans. That is hard with the cost of college, but I think we can! My retirement dream is to move to a place that my husband and I can live our best lives and be close to family. This is a changing goal as we don’t know where that will be, here in Arizona or someplace else, but I start with “what if” and walk the imagination path to see where it leads.

I was so delighted when I saw my final portraits for the first time! I really loved all of the portraits, which made it so hard to choose my selection. I had such a fun time during the session and was so pleased to see the end result. It was great.