The Swayze Year: You're Not Old, You're Just Getting Started!

By Colleen AF Venable and Meghan Daly

Did you know that Patrick Swayze was 35 when he got his big break in Dirty Dancing? The Swayze Year is an entertaining and inspiring humor book that proves you’re never too old to reach your potential.
The Swayze Year celebrates later-in-life wins with short profiles of one person for every year from age 35 to age 100 who climbed mountains—metaphorical and literal—wrote their own storylines, and found their happy little trees at a more mature age. With wit, humor, and warmth, The Swayze Year proves that no matter how old you are, you’re not done yet. Featured profiles include:

• Toni Morrison published her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, at age 39
• At 41, Bob Ross became the beloved host of The Joy of Painting 
• Judi Dench first achieved international fame for her role in Goldeneye at age 61
• At 84, Iris Apfel and her unique style were showcased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Pinetop Perkins became the oldest person to win a Grammy at age 97

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Release date: Sep 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781524891541

Colleen AF Venable

Colleen AF Venable is the author of the National Book Award long-listed Kiss Number 8, a graphic novel co-created with Ellen T. Crenshaw. Her other books include Mervin the Sloth is About to Do the Best Thing in The World with Ruth Chan, The Oboe Goes Boom Boom Boom with Lian Cho, and the Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye series, illustrated by Stephanie Yue and nominated for the Best Publication for Kids Eisner.

Book preview

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The Swayze Year copyright © 2023 by Colleen AF Venable and Meghan Daly. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

Andrews McMeel Publishing

a division of Andrews McMeel Universal

1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106

www.andrewsmcmeel.com

ISBN: 978-1-5248-9154-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023931257

Illustrations by Tara O'Connor

Editors: Allison Adler and Melissa Zahorsky

Designer: Tiffany Meairs

Production Editor: Brianna Westervelt

Production Manager: Chadd Keim

Ebook Production: Jasmine Lim

ATTENTION: SCHOOLS AND BUSINESSES

Andrews McMeel books are available at quantity discounts with bulk purchase for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail the Andrews McMeel Publishing Special Sales Department: [e-mail].

For Meghan, who would never let anybody put me in a corner. And for you, my dear yet-to-find-your-thing readers.

—C.V.

For Colleen, who convinced me that our Swayze Year joke would make a great book, and for my friends who endlessly support me in whatever wildly disparate endeavors I pursue.

—M.D.

Introduction

You know the feeling. You move and something creaks. You wake up with what feels like a hangover when you haven’t been drinking. You start saying 9 p.m.? Who meets at 9 p.m.? Figure skaters are younger than you are, then actors, then musicians, then spokespeople for AARP. A future that seemed infinite suddenly feels very finite. Maybe you start to narrow your dreams. Maybe you start to make excuses. Maybe you use THE PHRASE.

I’m too old to take up a new career.

I’m too old to try something different.

I’m too old to find the perfect blend of eleven herbs and spices to start a fried chicken chain.

You need a friend who isn’t going to allow you to feel any less worthy no matter how many rings your tree’s got.

This book is that friend.

✶  ✶  ✶

The Swayze Year came about when Colleen was about to turn thirty-five and was being a whiny baby about it. Ugh, I’m unmarried! In a job I don’t like! And out of shape! But I’m too old to make any real changes! Meghan—her best friend since college—pointed out that Patrick Swayze was thirty-five when he got his big break, kicking really high in really tight pants and standing up to anyone trying to put Baby in a corner in the classic ’80s film Dirty Dancing.

We started to call age thirty-five The Swayze Year and began to map out other inspirational figures for each subsequent age—figures who got their big breaks or accomplished incredible feats not when they were twenty or thirty but at age forty, sixty, even one hundred.

This book profiles one person for every year from age thirty-five to age one hundred—people who climbed mountains, metaphorical and literal; wrote their own storylines; and found their happy little trees, proving that no matter how old you are, you’re not done yet.

Like Alan Rickman, who got his first movie-acting role at forty-two in a little-known flick called Die Hard. Or Tina Turner, who exploded the Billboard charts in a very tiny skirt at forty-five. Or how about J. R. R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings at sixty-two? Or Jackie Moms Mabley, who was the first Black female stand-up comedian to land a gold record at sixty-seven? And you should definitely be inspired by Teiichi Igarashi, who climbed Mount Fuji at ninety-nine.

If you take anything away from these stories, we hope it’s that birthdays aren’t something to dread but instead are opportunities to try new things and keep following your dreams. Colleen wrote this book in her Ball’er Year. (At age forty, Lucille Ball became a household name in I Love Lucy and was damn stunning even when shoving conveyor-belt chocolates into her mouth.) And Meghan wrote this book in her Steal Your Moments Year. (At age thirty-nine, Toni Morrison published her first novel, The Bluest Eye, and punched the world in the gut with her brilliant and eye-opening writing.)

These lighthearted, humorous bios and inspiring stories are meant to help you get out of your own head, laugh, and hopefully restore a sense of optimism and possibility. Don’t fear the calendar. It’s never too late to get started.

35

The Swayze Year

What? You think you’re OLD?

Some days you may feel like you’re a pachanga in a world of tangos—like you missed your chance to make a mark on the world. But, like Baby’s dad judging Johnny in Dirty Dancing, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Stop thinking you missed your chance. Put on your dance pants, kick those legs up high, and don’t forget to lift up your friends.

You’re not old. You’re just getting started, and baby, nobody can put you in a corner.

✶  ✶  ✶

Patrick Swayze pursued multiple artistic endeavors in his youth, including dance and performance. He landed his first movie role at the age of twenty-seven in Skatetown USA, a star-studded flop, which turned him off dancing as a career . . . especially on roller skates. But fate wanted those hips to gyrate and at age thirty-five he returned to dance and landed the gig of a lifetime in Dirty Dancing. Swayze’s Johnny defied physics in very tight pants, and slumber parties all over the world wore out their VHS tapes trying to pause on the half-second view of his glorious side-butt.

36

The Go to Eleven Year

Most years only go to