Thirty to 40 was my happiest decade but I wouldn’t care to repeat it. 

I’ve had some great decades. But my 30s were a very exciting and formative time for me. I had been working so hard through my 20s that I just ignored a lot of my feelings. I put them aside — I was just too busy (and tired) for them. But somewhere in my 30s I grew into being a woman and allowed myself to take the time to explore and feel all of it. And it informed all the years that came after it. I don’t want to go back and do that decade again, but had I not had that time, I would be in an entirely different place from where I am now. And I like where I am now.

My past is full of mistakes I wouldn’t dream of repeating – the big ones and those little ones like those apricot silk draperies I couldn’t afford for my first apartment. I look forward to tomorrow and next year because the beauty of aging is that you do get wiser.

I don’t particularly want to relive anything, but if I have to choose I would say New York City in the ’50s when I first arrived green and eager. It was just five years after World War II and the city was glorious and the world was my exotic oyster.

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