JD Schramm
59
San Francisco, CA - USA
I'm passionate about my kids and husband. I worked so hard to become a dad that I cherish the time I get to spend with them on big adventures or small pleasures.
Somebody who craved status and attention to somebody who values making a contribution to others above all else.
JD Schramm has felt the tremor of a few lifequakes that have impacted the plotline of his life story, their fault lines etched in his soul. But he was caught off guard by another wave of overlapping lifequakes that forced him to reimagine what life could look like and start writing a new script for a bespoke ‘second half’ that was tailor made for him.
It was the start of 2021, and as the world was coming to grips with navigating its way through the uncertainty of the pandemic, JD was also grappling with the loss of not one, but two roles he loved at Stanford and the accompanying sense of loss on a professional, personal, and financial level. His 25-year career as both an educator and an administrator was unceremoniously pulled out from beneath him. This was more than just a job to JD, his identity as a professor had come to define him, and losing it knocked the wind out of his sails. JD knew that he needed to find his bearings, plot a new course, and steer his way through the messy middle.
While JD had known Chip for decades, he hadn’t followed Chip’s evolution into MEA and so it was serendipitous that they reconnected. JD became aware of MEA and the Navigating Midlife Transitions course exactly when he needed it. For JD, this messy middle was a season of intense personal exploration where, with the encouragement of his husband, he took the space to follow his curiosity and to reimagine what was possible. As Oscar Wilde famously said; “What seems to us bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
As we transition through the liminal moosh of midlife, the ability to see and rediscover the world through fresh eyes is a powerful practice.
But this idea of rediscovery extends beyond seeing to “doing” as well. Curiosity lubricates our minds to reimagine what life could look like and to see the world in new and exciting ways. A willingness to transition to something “else” requires an open mind, especially when you don’t know what the “else” is.
A willingness to transition to something “else” requires an open mind, especially when you don’t know what the “else” is.
While navigating this transition, JD embraced a growth mindset, using what he began describing as “his self-funded sabbatical” to build on his own skills and repertoire of learning experiences. During that season of exploration, he got certified as a crisis counselor, volunteered on the election, and enrolled in MEA’s Navigating Midlife Transitions online course. While everyone takes something different from their experience at MEA, for JD, MEA provided three C’s – curriculum, community, and the container. The curriculum, language, and framework around which to reframe midlife from a crisis to a calling, a community of likeminded individuals who were also in transition and a container and safe space within which all of this midlife magic could happen.
The course empowered him to him to say, “I’m ok being self-employed” and launching his own private practice as a coach, speaker, and author, and finding different elements to add to his portfolio that allow him to make a difference in world, have the income he needs and the freedom to be a hands-on dad to his three kids.
JD feels passionate both about his next professional chapter and the personal fulfillment he derives from being of service to the world. As a long-term survivor of a suicide attempt, JD does a great deal of public speaking and volunteering in the recovery and mental health communities. He feels blessed to be here and is committed to helping others find the much-needed resources to help them to put their lives back together physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
JD embodies what it means to be a modern elder. He is curious, wise, generous, and audacious.
JD embodies what it means to be a modern elder. He is curious, wise, generous, and audacious.
JD embodies what it means to be a modern elder. He is curious, wise, generous, and audacious.
JD embodies what it means to be a modern elder. He is curious, wise, generous, and audacious.
Since completing the online transitions course, JD has gone back to MEA twice. Once in 2022 as a participant in the Cultivating Purpose online course and again in 2023 as guest faculty in Baja, where he and his husband led a workshop - The Roadmap For Living A Life of Abundance. And this year he’s heading to Santa Fe in July to attend Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life with Richard Rohr and Michael Poffenberger.
A keeper and sharer of wisdom. He draws joy and strength from mentoring others and is a firm believer in the idiom that “Wisdom is not taught; it’s shared.” Through his own midlife awakening, JD has reimagined and intentionally created a meaningful and fulfilling life and an identity not tethered to a title.
- Ang Galloway, midlife writer and MEA alumni
