Article by Gwen Jones, Department of Family Services
(Posted 2026 October)
Lifelong learning can take many paths and doesn’t always start in the classroom. For Sharon Masterson, her interest in learning about other countries and cultures began during a family trip to Florida. It continued when, against the advice of friends, she had the courage to follow her instincts and join the U.S. Army. This choice allowed her to travel, see the world, and learn about people and cultures she never would have known if she had stayed in her hometown. Now retired, Sharon is still curious and eager to learn, and her travels keep that curiosity alive.
Sharon grew up in a middle-class family in Michigan. Her mom stayed home to care for Sharon, her brother, and three sisters, while her dad worked for General Motors. The family liked doing things outdoors, such as camping, boating, snowmobiling, and going on roadtrips. Her childhood felt safe and familiar, but her town did not have much diversity, so she did not know much about other cultures.
That changed in 1973, when Sharon was in ninth grade. Her family drove to Florida, and while visiting the Kennedy Space Center, she saw a woman who looked very different from anyone she had ever seen. The woman wore a beautiful sari and had a bindi on her forehead. Seeing this woman made a strong impression on Sharon. “I was so fascinated. I couldn’t believe that there was a culture like this somewhere in the world that I knew nothing about,” she says.
Around the same time, Sharon became interested in joining the military. After high school, she told her friends she was thinking about it, but they talked her out of it. Instead, she became a successful real estate agent. She traveled to Jamaica, Mexico, and Canada. These trips were fun, but they did not fully satisfy her wish to see the wider world or quiet her interest in the military.
On the verge of her thirtieth birthday, Sharon finally found the courage to join the U.S. Army. “When I was 29 and 6 months old, I woke up and said, I know I’m successful at selling real estate so I can do this,” she remembers. She was too old to become an officer, so she enlisted for three years and planned to return home when her time was up.
The Army sent her to El Paso, Texas. She liked living in the desert, which was very different from Michigan. When her three years were up, the Army offered her a new job in Germany. “I was planning on getting out, and then they said, we have an assignment for you in Germany. I finally got to go overseas,” she says. Her work involved traveling often and living in different parts of the world. During her career, she visited 41 countries and lived in Germany, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Fiji. She enjoyed learning about the people and the culture everywhere she went.
While serving full time, Sharon kept learning. She took online classes and earned college degrees in international relations (with a focus on terrorism) and cybersecurity. Her interest in cybersecurity grew out of her work in Army intelligence. “I started going down the cybersecurity road, which was kind of new. A lot of people didn’t understand it, but I was interested enough to know that threat was going to be pretty severe,” she explains.
After 20 years with the Army, Sharon retired in Heidelberg, Germany in 2008. She could continue working for the federal government as a contractor for another 13 years, so in December 2008, she flew to Washington, D.C. to start the next phase of her life. “Within 24 hours, I had a job. Within 48 hours, I had a place to live, and I know I’m going to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, so this is my home,” she says.
After spending some time in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, Sharon decided to build a home in a newly developed community in Lorton, Virginia. She liked that it is next to I-95 and close to the Springfield Metro station, but the main reason she chose it was the quiet setting and nearby nature. “I have deer that come in my front yard, eating my flowers all the time. It’s just so peaceful to see them. I have hummingbirds starting to come back, butterflies. I’ve got woodpeckers in the back eating the bird food,” she says.
Her home is also close to Washington, D.C., so she can easily visit museums, go to the theater, and try new restaurants. It also makes it easy for her to volunteer, especially at Ford’s Theatre and Mount Vernon. At Ford’s Theater, she works as an usher and scans tickets; once everyone is seated, she can watch the show. At Mount Vernon, Sharon dresses in period attire, greets visitors, and answers their questions. “Everyone asks who I’m playing. I’m just a neighbor of Martha and George Washington, helping them greet their visitors,” she explains. Volunteering lets her give back to her community, feeds her interest in history, and supports her love of learning.
After settling into her new home, Sharon continued to travel. When she traveled with others, she often ended up doing all the planning and acting as the guide. This was a lot of work. Then a friend showed her photos from a trip with Road Scholar, a nonprofit group that offers educational tours around the world for older adults, mostly people 50 and up. Sharon was curious.
In 2017, she signed up for her first trip with Road Scholar: hiking in Arcadia National Park in Maine. She felt safe hiking with a group led by an experienced guide. She also enjoyed not having to plan anything. She just had to show up and enjoy the trip. While she was still working, she went on one or two Road Scholar trips each year.
Sharon fully retired in December 2021. With work behind her, she began taking up to eight Road Scholar trips a year. She has been on many types of trips, from cruises to Alaska and Antarctica to outdoor adventures like dog sledding, to city and cultural tours around the world. She likes that Road Scholar tour groups are smaller and that learning is the main focus. “Because it is an educational program, we’re all there to learn the same thing. Some may know a little bit more about the culture that we’re visiting and for some it’s the first time being exposed to it. But it’s all about learning,” she says. Their trips usually include a class in the morning or evening before visiting a historic site. Road Scholar also gives the travelers books about the places and cultures they visit.
Because the travelers are serious about learning, Sharon says that people are almost never late or rude because they know their behavior affects the whole group. She also likes how each trip is unique. She has stayed in all kinds of places during her travels, from fancy five-star hotels to simple Boy Scout cabins, depending on the location.
As a single woman, Sharon feels that Road Scholar makes travel easier and safer. She thinks that about 80% of the people on her trips are single women. Recently, she has noticed more married women traveling without their husbands. “I’ll ask, is your husband working? No, he doesn’t like to travel, and I’m tired of sitting home by myself, so I found Road Scholar, and it’s safe,” she says. Although trips start with strangers, they often end with friends. Sharon keeps in touch with people she met on a tour of Australia and New Zealand; they share news and talk about future trips. She is also planning to meet up with friends from a past trip this fall, when their plans to visit Morocco overlap.
Sharon calls herself “goal-oriented” and has set travel goals for herself. Recently, she reached one of them: visiting all seven continents with Road Scholar. Two years ago, she finally visited India, the country whose culture had amazed her when she was a girl at the Kennedy Space Center. “I learned so much about the Hindu culture. It was fascinating,” she says. She has two new goals now: to visit every national park in the United States and to visit 100 countries. She has already seen about 37% of the U.S. national parks and has visited 70 countries, so she is well on her way. She is also thinking about setting a goal for visiting international parks, but more research is needed.
Recently, Sharon took a short break from frequent travel so she could focus time and money on projects around the house. She still kept busy with volunteering, gardening, and reading. But more travel is on the way. Next up are back-to-back trips to Southern France and Morocco in the fall, which will be her 34th and 35th trips with Road Scholar. After that, she is planning a winter trip to Costa Rica, a spring tour of China, Tibet, and South Korea, and a tour of Egypt and Jordan next fall.
At 68, Sharon’s love for travel and learning is as strong as ever. “It really is amazing when I travel and I love it. It’s the education part. I thrive off of it. It’s almost a thirst that I have for learning. It’s sad that people give up on learning. They get to a certain point in their life and they think it’s over. Oh, you have no idea,” she says.
This article is part of the Golden Gazette monthly newsletter which covers a variety of topics and community news concerning older adults and caregivers in Fairfax County. Are you new to the Golden Gazette? Don’t miss out on future newsletters! Subscribe to get the electronic or free printed version mailed to you. Have a suggestion for a topic? Share it in an email or call 703-324-GOLD (4653).