a mouse turns forty

For four years prior to her 40th birthday Mandy had been languishing over the loss of a man she had lavished the prime of her life upon and had hoped to marry. Feeling sorry for her, an old male friend treated Mandy to a birthday lunch at a top restaurant and he could not believe his eyes when he came to pick her up.

She had transformed from Mandy the Mouse into Mandy the Magnificent!

"I looked stunning and heads turned as I walked into the restaurant," laughs Mandy.

"Believe it or not but I was wearing an old dress and a fake Rolex but it wasn't my clothes and jewelry people were looking at - and admiring - it was my style, my radiance and my freshness."

"No amount of money could buy that look, " says Mandy, "and do you want to know how I achieved it?"

“I made my mind up that day to forget Jordan,” explains Mandy. “I’d made up my mind to forget him millions of times before, but turning the magic 40 really did the trick. I not only swore off Jordan, but the whole idea of love and marriage and, of course, babies."

"I actually felt different that day. I felt strangely strong and powerful. I didn’t wear anything different, or do my hair differently, but I felt different."

"I had no idea that I looked different until I saw the effect I was having on other people." laughs Mandy. "It was really heady stuff!”

Almost immediately upon turning 40 and deciding that she no longer wanted marriage or a man in her life, Mandy the Mouse's life changed dramatically.

She gained a confidence that nobody had seen in her before, least of all Mandy herself. She had always been a mouse. She even squeaked like a mouse when she talked.

Now, she radiated with confidence and spoke with full throttle from her lungs.

“I had always been afraid of public speaking,” confides Mandy, “but for some strange reason I had an incredible desire to command attention so I enrolled in a public speaking class and gave two lectures. Everyone hung on to every word I said and I couldn’t believe that it was me up there at the rostrum spouting on about politics and economics."

"One guy said I was so good that he suggested I should join a political party and run for office, but honestly I was having so much fun that I didn’t want to spoil it by getting out of my depth.”

With every head that turned in admiration that year, Mandy gained an inch more in stature and arrogance. She was a queen in every respect. She ordered people to do this and that for her, and they bowed to her every whim. She had more admirers that year than she previously had in her whole life, but she treated them all with utter distain as befitting her new persona.

“I had vowed on my 40th birthday that I was never going to play second fiddle to a man again,” confides Mandy, “and I meant it."

"I can’t believe that I wasted four years of my life being treated like a doormat by Jordan, and then another four years of my life moping about him after he dumped me.”

At 40, Mandy the Magnificent didn’t pull punches. She commanded respect.

In keeping with her new image she gradually disposed of every single thing that reminded her of Jordan and the old Mandy the Mouse identity.

"I had four garage sales that year and with the proceeds I did something remarkable," says Mandy. "I got a portrait painted."

“I never had as much as a photograph of myself taken as a baby,” explains Mandy. “I felt so beautiful that year and I wanted to remember that feeling forever.”

With the change of image Mandy made the social pages in local publications and she even appeared in an international publication - an event that sparked letters and calls from people she hadn’t heard from for years.

Before the end of the year, she had also moved on to a dream job. It was all happening for her.

Old friends who remembered Mandy the Mouse were becoming seriously envious, but Mandy was far too busy enjoying being the center of attention to notice.

In the twelfth month of her Year of Magnificence Mandy asked an old friend an outlandish favor and it was quite rightly refused.

"The year was drawing to a close," explains Mandy, "I guess I was losing my 'magnificence' and in a fit of uncharacteristic pique I excommunicated not only the person who refused my favor but also several other old friends."

Mandy had become so obsessed with ego gratification, believing herself to be a queen with rights to chop off people's heads if they displeased her, that she alienated the very people she needed to nurture her through her final break from Jordan.

“You know that old adage about being careful who you tread on when you’re climbing up the ladder because you’ll meet them on the way down?” asks Mandy. “Well, I started to meet them all before the end of the year and I’m really sorry now that I got so carried away."

"Honestly, though," says Mandy, "if there were one age I could live over again and again it would be 40 - even if it meant that people would get hurt. It was worth it to get Jordan out of my system."

"It was a year of pure magic and yes, I kept to my word. I never gave Jordan a second thought - except perhaps to wonder what on earth I ever saw in him to start off with."

"I now enjoy casual dating - without commitment or anything heavy,” says Mandy, "and I'm doing well in my career. I've lost that first flush of 'magnificence' that comes from breaking ties with a lost cause, but I'm a long, long way from being the mouse that I once was."

(Mandy's story first appeared as ms mouse to ms magnificent and is reprinted with permission.)