• My 88-year-old grandmother has a bustling social life and has always lived in the present.
• She doesn't spend too much time worrying about the future and stays open to trying new things.
• She's inspired me to enjoy my life instead of worrying so much about where to live and what to do.

Every Wednesday night after graduating from college, I sat in my grandma's living room and spiraled about my future.

How could I decide on the one thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life? One city to live in? One partner to marry?

She nodded and listened while filling our plates with kugel and mandel bread. "Emma," she'd say after my lament. "I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up."

My 88-year-old grandma has always lived in the present

My grandma Reva leads the most fulfilled life of anyone I know — not just the 80-plus-year-olds.

Now 88, she told me her secret is to "just live in the moment." And, throughout her life, she's stayed open to giving things a try if they sound interesting.

At 18, she took a leap of faith by marrying an Army man she met through a letter because, she said, she had "nothing to lose." That leap led to a 65-year marriage. The two kissed goodnight, held hands, and slow danced until the very end.

With her "I'll try it out" mindset, she bounced around jobs, only staying where she could find the fun.

As a retail employee, she quit on day one after meeting a rude coworker. As a legal secretary, her "boss was a putz," so she moved on to work for my grandpa's accounting firm. That job was hard work, but she loved the vacations after every tax season.

When that closed, she went to work for my dad. There, she made a best friend and stayed a while. "We used to laugh at all the clients, but I whipped that place into shape," she told me.

When my grandpa passed five years ago, she moved out of their family home and into a one-bedroom apartment. For the first time in her life, in her 70s, she was living alone.

Aside from the new digs, we figured her life would remain relatively unchanged. With her weekly mahjong and canasta games with friends, Friday night family dinners, and frequent calls with her 13 grandchildren, Grandma's life seemed content as is.

Instead, she chose to lean into this new chapter in her 80s and fill her life with even more joy and community. She and her apartment neighbors (turned friends) now spend their winters gossiping in the party room and summers book-clubbing at the pool.

Last week, she was too busy tasting each of her neighbor's "signature drinks" to take my call. "I never went to college, now I get the sorority-house experience," she told me. "It's made my life more beautiful."

Once again, my grandmother's life led me to reflect on my own. My grandma lives such a rich, social life — people even recognize her by just her laugh. If someone so happy has spent her life finding joy in the present, why was I so worried about the future?

She's inspired me to lean into present feelings while making peace with future uncertainties

So, I took her advice. I decided I no longer needed to know what I wanted to do when I grew up — just what I wanted to do tomorrow.

Swallowing my fears, I quit my job in Chicago and moved to New York City. Living in Manhattan, my decision paralysis dissipated.

I made new friends and kept the old. I signed up for the intimidating extracurriculars, and my comedy classes quickly became the highlight of my week. I dated without the pressure of finding one "forever person," and forged connections I'd otherwise convince myself out of.

By this playbook, I realized that tomorrow, I wanted to be a writer. So, I gave up my spot in my graduate program and applied for journalism school instead.

Just a few weeks ago, my grandma was "too busy clapping to take photos," as I walked across the graduation stage to collect my degree.

These days, neither one of us knows what we want to be when we grow up — but I'm no longer worried about it. All I know is we're happy today, and I'm excited to figure out what I'd like to do tomorrow.

• We wanted to go to our friends' three-day wedding, but leaving our kids was going to be tough.
• We decided to rent an apartment big enough that my parents could come with us.
• They watched the kids while we went to the wedding events, and we all had a great time.

Parenting during the early years can be tricky, especially when your little one wants you and only you. Your social life often gets put on the back burner, and I struggled with this when I became a mom.

Last year, my husband and I were invited to our friends' three-day wedding on the Gold Coast, Australia, where my folks are based. These particular friends know how to throw an epic party, so we really wanted to be there to celebrate with them. My husband and I were also desperately in need of a little kid-free adult time, where we could let loose and reconnect with our younger selves again.

However, our youngest daughter was still quite clingy with me. Our older two kids were 5 and 9 at the time, so we knew they would be fine if they had a three-day sleepover at my parents' house, but the 2-year-old wouldn't hear of it.

In the lead-up to the wedding, my husband and I deliberated about what to do. Hiring a babysitter around the clock was out of the question, and it was going to be hard for my mom and dad to have the three kids at their place, which was about a half-hour drive from the wedding. So, my husband came up with a plan.

My mom and dad came with us to watch the kids

"Why don't we pay for your mom and dad to stay around the corner from the wedding?" he asked one night over dinner. It sounded like a good idea to me, so I asked my folks if they would mind, and they said they'd love to. After all, who doesn't want a mini-break in an apartment on the beach (even with three little kids to entertain)?

We rented the most perfect three-bedroom apartment with enough room for all seven of us so my parents could stay and watch the kids while we went to the wedding events. It had views of the Gold Coast and the occasional migrating humpback whale cruising past. There was a playground close to our apartment, and it was a short walk to the local shops. Best of all, the hotel where the wedding guests were staying was a two-minute walk away.

When the big day arrived and we checked in, the kids were so excited about the setting, they barely registered it that night when it was time for my husband and me to slip out to attend the first wedding event — a cocktail party.

We got glammed up, enjoyed a few drinks, and then returned to the apartment to kiss the kids goodnight before continuing the festivities. It was perfect.

The next day was the day of the actual wedding. We spent the morning with the kids and my folks on the beach, then walked two minutes down the road to the bus stop, where transport was waiting to take us to a picturesque wedding venue in the next suburb.

It was the perfect arrangement, and we all had a good time

We had the most amazing time at the wedding and loved that we were still close enough to go back to the apartment in a taxi if the kids needed us. Luckily, they didn't — they were having too much fun with Nana and Pop.

The third day was a recovery day. We had a boozy brunch at a local surf club, and then that night, we headed back to the same venue where the welcome cocktail party was held for impromptu post-wedding drinks with our friends. We had a ball and crept into the apartment at 3 a.m. feeling like two naughty 20-somethings.

Overall, paying for a larger apartment so our parents could stay with us and babysit while we attended our friends' wedding worked amazingly well. It meant we had people we trusted watching our kids, and the kids felt safe being with their grandparents, so they didn't need us.

We all ended up having an incredible three days. Mom and Dad made memories with the kids, while my husband and I danced and frolicked and felt like we were in our 20s again.