“A late bloomer is a person whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual”
Birthdays and New Years Eves are not great times for me.
Any milestone gives you due cause to evaluate the year that has gone before, and the year that is to come. A simple enough moment that for most goes unnoticed, unless you are like me. I'm perpetually hard on myself, I judge my success against others, and I constantly feel as if I ought to have done more by now. When the clock strikes 12 and the candles are blown out, a sense of failure materialises.
It's not all doom and gloom though (i.e nothing to worry about Mum).
I've just turned twenty seven, I'm on the road to releasing my first EP, and there's plenty of things to be proud of this year. Though I wish these moments had electronic reminders or daily alerts. I easily forget what I've achieved, which means that with every passing year a soliloquy of sorts, or an oration from a concerned loved one is almost always necessary. The lingering sense with every grey hair that appears and pimple that retreats, is that I'm getting old, that I haven't done enough, and that my time may never come.
So now I find myself having spent the better part of two hours googling 'late bloomers' in a bid to find some reassurance. The most encouraging story is about the man behind those delicious drums, greasy fingers, and heart burn: Colonel Sanders of KFC.
“The KFC founder – Christian name Harland – first franchised the name that would become a global fast food brand in 1952, when he was all of 62-years old. Before that, he was worked as a railroad labourer, and managed companies that offered ferry services and acetylene lamps, until eventually running a motel. There, his fried chicken proved popular -but it was still 12 years before his secret recipe was sold in more than one place.”
I am so encouraged by this, technically this means I have 35 more years (62-27=35) to carve out a musical career that I'm proud of, one that outlasts me. In a world that communicates in best-before dates and prescribed shelf lives, I'm challenged to know that our age shouldn't define us. We are all on a journey, and that journey will take as long as it takes. Rest assured that our time is yet to come, and that we're never truly too old to follow our dreams. Life is 80% out of our control, but let 's invest the 20% that is into readying ourselves for when our moment does come. Work hard, persist and be patient.
But let this all be prefaced by the comforting fact that we are human be-ings, not human do-ings. A life well lived isn't defined by our output alone, but by the characteristics alchemised in the process.
Sixty two.
Theoretically, this NYE should be a lot easier than last.