If you are an Instagram follower, this post and these pics will be old news to you…if not, prepare yourself for a bit of a surprise…

It all started the summer of 2019…a friend sent me a text message with a link to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Competition, and how they had just selected a 55 year old for the 2020 issue, as the magazine now embraces women of diversity – size, age, height, etc…”You should go for it next year!”, she encouraged me, as hubby said, “You better hurry up before it gets too late…” Very funny Peter. As someone who has never modeled but is addicted to style and fitness, I was certainly intrigued and figured that when the time came, there would be plenty of notice to prepare, and get in my best shape…

Fast forward to July 29th of 2020. Shit! Just happened to see online that the competition for 2021 started in FIVE DAYS. Oh no. I’ve been eating too much. Oh no, I don’t know how to make a video. Oh no, I’m not prepared, I don’t have enough time, I will look foolish…Ugh. For two days I was literally paralyzed and at one point I decided to forget it. I can’t do this. No way.

Well, the paralysis did not last long.

With the support of my husband and daughter, I was not going to pass up this opportunity…my chances may be one in a million, but they will be zero if I don’t try…

This was the pic I entered with, taken earlier this year in Turks and Caicos…now I needed more pics and a 60 second video…it was time to get creative and do my best to show personality and energy…

I also soon realized that pics should be without sunglasses and hats, so most of my vacation pics were not going to work…ugh. Certainly going out of my comfort zone but once my mind was made up there was no going back…

On Saturday, August 1st, using only my iPhone, Peter was the photographer as I posed in various locations at home…

In the kitchen…

In the backyard…

And even wearing street clothes…

As for my video, I tried to simply be myself and stick to my life philosophy: being 62 years old and being a grandmother need not mean being invisible – and – it need not mean slowing down! Ginger always told me, “Enjoy your youth, because it’s all downhill after 50.” I beg to differ!

Saturday afternoon in the backyard, we taped the video over and over again until it felt right…then I turned it over to my daughter who kindly used her skills to put the video together with pics – not an easy task for someone to create a ‘bikini video’ of their mother...as she was starting the process, she asked me, “Couldn’t I give you a kidney instead??” Hahaha. I owe her a nice gift. 😉

She did a great job! Click here to see….

With the video submitted, I could now breathe easy – I did it. It’s done.

Oh, but there’s more. Part of the competition is posting regular pics on Instagram, so that meant I needed MORE pics. As luck would have it, we were booked to go to the Cape for a long weekend with the family – directly on the beach, so a great location for photos! When the family was out of sight, we got down to business…;-)

Work hard…

Play hard…

Enjoy every day!

Now I am playing the waiting game and as the days pass by, I am less and less hopeful about getting a call…who knows what they are looking for this year? With all of the thousands of submissions, who knows if they even looked at my video?

The Bottom Line:

• Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Just because SI may not select me, it does not mean that this was all for naught. Sometimes you do something that leads you to a whole new opportunity. (Ensure commercials!)
• In the current state of our pandemic, this sure has been a fun distraction!

Stay well. Dress well. Enjoy the NOW.