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| Passion Flower by Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1827) |
Later Bloomer aims to provide late-blooming adults with the tools, support and inspiration to discover their own timeline, cultivate their talents and live with passion.
Later Blooming isn't about a particular age. It's about the aha! moment that transforms everything that follows.
In particular, Later Bloomer focuses on people who've wearied of the corporate treadmill and crave a more creative, intellectual – artier, smartier – life.
POSTING SCHEDULE
Bloomer Bios -- the mainstay of Later Bloomer: On Monday, I profile a well-known Later Bloomer outside the corporate milieu. Although the founders of MacDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken both built fast-food empires after age 50, you won't find them here.
You will, however, find people as diverse as Bram Stoker (author), Buster Merryfield (actor), and Mary Somerville (scientist).
I'm also passionate about learning, creativity, adventure, longevity, anti-retirement, and cultivating an enduring vision – all of vital interest to Later Bloomers. I'll often cover one of these areas in mid-week post. And from time to time we'll have a Girls' Friday, random musings for and about les femmes d'un certain âge.
As an introduction, please check out "Why Are Some People Later Bloomers?" Part 1.
MY STORY
I’ve always been a late bloomer. Until recently, I felt compelled to do what other people thought I should – especially my mom. She thought I should get out of the house and earn a "decent" living, so I left home at 19 to study business.
By age 26, I managed the contracts department for a large aerospace firm. Every day I wondered, Is this it? I hated the corporate milieu. I dreamed of an exciting, creative, intellectual life, so:
- At age 30, I entered UCLA to study Anthropology.
- At 32, I spent the summer doing archaeology in the California Channel Islands.
- At 33, I became Dr. Maria Gimbutas' last graduate assistant and helped bring her final book to fruition.
- At 35, I excavated a medieval motte in Wales, a Neolithic passage tomb in Ireland, and journeyed around the British Isles.
- At 36, I earned a combined bachelor's and master’s degree in Anthropology, with an specialization in Archaeology.
- At 38, I took up Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee’s martial art).
- At 40, I backpacked across Europe alone.
- At 41, I learned sword fighting from a real-life modern Amazon while co-managing an Olympic fencing center.
- At 42, I broke my foot doing a cartwheel in a stunt tumbling class (oops).
- At 43, I bungy-jumped off a bridge in New Zealand.
- At 44, I went to screenwriting school (and discovered I had neither the desire nor the talent to write movies).
- At 46, I found the love of my life and got married.
The pain returned after I had my uterus sliced up by lasers and siphoned out through my belly button. I completely broke down. I was 50 years old, in constant pain, with 35 extra pounds, $35,000 in debt and wondering, Is this it?
What happened to that other person who was me?
Between wracking sobs, an inner voice said,
You can be miserable for the rest of your life or you can be something else. Choose well – you could have another 50 years.Another half-century of illness and self-pity, ending up attached to a La-z-boy in front of the Home Shopping Network popping $100s worth of pharmaceuticals every month? No way.
I'm going to be a healthy late-blooming centenarian and I want to inspire you to join me.
You know what they say – better late than never!
