Salutations, Late Bloomers! I started this blog with beauty in mind, but being a late bloomer can apply to a number of things from interpersonal relationships, talents and skills, to careers. Thinking about our culture broadly, we have milestones that we tend to associate with certain ages, like when it’s appropriate to be a college student and the age you become a “non-traditional” student. I didn’t get my degree until I was 28, and at 32 I still haven’t bought my own car. I was 17 before I took driver’s ed. I’ve been late to just about every lifetime milestone you can imagine, except the transition from high school to college. I started college at 17, because I’m an August baby and I bridged with my college prep program the summer after graduation. That’s just it, though; I went straight from one classroom to another and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, because I had no experience with the real world.
I can’t decide if I had an early mid-life crisis or a late quarter-life crisis, and if I just had delayed teenage angst in my twenties. That’s a thing, right? Let me know in the comments if you’ve experienced this.
We’re neither doomed nor running out of time, Late Bloomers. If you think you’re screwed because you haven’t figured out what you want to do or who you want to be, check out the wiki entry for late bloomer sometime. Lots of amazing people didn’t even start doing the things that made them famous until later in life. I also like to think that maybe the reason I can’t decide is because the thing I’m destined to be most passionate about hasn’t been invented yet.
Most importantly, you have to stop and ask yourself “Does my life make me happy?” When I graduated, all the people in my class were asked the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Everyone had great answers and big plans. All I could say was “happy.” Oh, but I thought I was so clever! Brilliant little kiss-ass. Being happy isn’t as easy as it sounds, nor is it really a life plan that others can accept, but I am happy. There are things I would change and I still have goals, but I am happy with my life.
So I leave you with this: