Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day with my girls Mary and Kimmy. Maybe because we were at a Mother’s Day brunch even though we don’t have children, maybe because it was my birthday last week, or maybe because we’re so nearly at the end of our AmeriCorps year, something happened over spicy eggplant curry and iced coffee: we spoke honestly and fearlessly about ourselves and our lives, and not in a Sex-and-the-City-honey-I-love-you-but-that-outfit-doesn’t-work kind of way but in a I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing-with-my-life way.
We agreed that this thing called life is some hard shit, and you can’t get someone else to do it for you. We talked about the lies we’ve been told over the course of our lives. If you study hard, get into a good college, and graduate you will get a job and life will be okay. No matter how successful you are and how much money you have you will always be happy. You have to do everything you’re ever going to do by the time you’re 30.
And it’s true. Hell, Tina Fey didn’t get her own show until she was 36, Helen Mirren didn’t win an Oscar until she was 60, Betty White is at the pinnacle of her career and she’s eighty-frickin-eight! There are no rules and there is no set plan. Just keep on keepin’ on, and the rest will follow.
Janey Cutler said she auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent at 80 years old because, “I love singing, and it’s never too late.” She’s right, and she blew my socks off.
xoxo