Fall flowers. Nope. This entry is not about chrysanthemums and asters. I want to debunk the myth that if you don’t bloom in the spring of your life that your opportunity is lost. Technology has sped up the rate at which we do everything, but that doesn’t have to translate to the way that we, as humans, are expected to peak. I have had the opportunity to meet some fantastic and beautiful souls in this industry that are just beginning the accent to their peak in their fields. Guess what? They aren’t 25. They are the parents of kiddles that are 25.
There is so much pressure for kids these days to do all and be all right away in life. High school sports that lead to athletic scholarships or extra points with a college admissions committee, perfect GPAs with all the extra credit turned in, bright-shiny social media accounts that portray the perfect student in the Instagram feed, SAT scores that are the product of expense coaching. Kids these days are expected to do it all. I’m glad I grew up in an era that didn’t track my every move online through an app on a smart phone. The pressure must be enormous on these kids. The world is heavy and they are playing the Atlas role in this Greek tragedy, but what happens if they don’t roll into their 30s driving an Audi in NYC with the perfect career? Side note – Are Audi’s still cool cars? I’m sorta out of the auto loop….. No really, what happens? I’m tellin’ ya, we better be ready for what happens when the bottom falls out because it’s going to open like a trap door. Is there something beyond the initial dreams these kids chased? I would argue that there is.
I know there is because I’m watching people in their 40s and 50s that are changing their stars and blooming in the fall of their career lives. There is a whole army of people my age that are changing careers, starting careers and doing it quite successfully and that’s good news to millennials. As a mom, I have watched my kids and the kids they grew up with put such enormous pressures on themselves to figure ‘it’ out and to ‘it’ right now. Let up a little on the bit young’uns. It’s a long race if your run it right and you don’t want to miss the fall flowers.