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[tellmesomethingaboutit]

About being a late bloomer

The world goes fast. Fast enough to see how late one can be.

It's THE article, the one which inspired my will to write, the one from which this whole idea first surfaced.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking (and a lot of writing, that goes without saying) and I came to realize "late" is such an absurd adjective. At least for us young adults. Being late to a gathering with some friends, arriving late to your parent's Friday night diner or getting late to work are affordable kinds of "late"'s, even if those imply a lack of punctuality. But why do we keep getting pressured to finish our degrees, become parents, taking out a mortgage ? You are never safe from a condescending comment thrown by an older person or, ironically, from people the same age as you. It's as if they wanted to show us their superiority, how they hold their stuff together, in their perfectly fabricated reality. And I know I sound judgmental, but we're passed the politically correct as of now on.

I have found myself in situations where I could not control my speed, whether it was related to learning or to certain stages in my life. And after listening to a podcast (cf. "Quand la vie devient une course", Océane Andrea), I just contemplated how far I had come already.

Because, whether we like it or not, life is not as simple as movies or books let out to be. Life is made up of stunts and pitfalls that intervene on the path of life, like a stroll on which one tries to walk peacefully. But that's the point of a hike : to try to walk peacefully, to find serenity in what you observe. It is above all something that is supposed to bring happiness. But then the walk, which we start off naively enough, becomes a track. And there, you have to perform, be the best in your field, not let yourself be beaten, push your limits. It is at this point that I wonder at what stage the ride stopped. How did I get there?

It wasn't supposed to be a race. I was walking around and, despite some obstacles, managed to find my way contentedly. You never know where you're going, but the fact remains that most roads lead to Rome. Without a clear route, I understood how and why I was moving. This is not quite the case anymore. The only thing I still know is that I want to maintain a state of peace, a certain happiness. But in the end, I don't understand it. I can't function rightfully under pressure. And I believe it's the case for most of us humans.

Challenges are one thing, they give us hope and will. I have always loved putting goals for everything (even if I couldn't reach them) : school, hobbies, work... Defying myself in some of the fields I love was never a problem. On the contrary, the pressure emanating from certain unjustified or purely useless comments (because they didn't push me up the ladder) just made me want to give up. Maybe that's why I've never been able to finish anything in any of my chosen fields.

So, what is exactly being a late bloomer ? There's no such thing, in my opinion. We all struggle to get ourselves where we want to be, timing shouldn't be part of the main drivers to get there. I don't even want to include any scientific articles to explain what it's like to be 'late'. It's true that if we could perhaps understand it, we could 'move forward better'. But, in my opinion, the answer won't sound as miraculous as it lets out to be and will probably be no better than a YouTube video advocating methods to stop procrastinating.

Far be it from me to want to appear out of touch with reality or to want to exclude myself from has been decided as standard. I just think that time shouldn't define us as people, our temperament or our personality. Being late on certain points, on certain events or in other areas does not constitute mental retardation. It's actually the difference in our timelines that's so interesting about each of us.

So, it's THE article, the one which inspired my will to write. Because I have been considered 'late' my whole life. I never knew what I wanted to do because I didn't know where my passion lied. But with time, I came to realize there wasn't a 'good or bad moment' to start something you're passionate about. Maybe I'm not so late after all...

[tellmesomethingaboutit]

Let me tell you something...

I always liked stories, whether I was told them or made them up, it didn't matter. All I wanted was to be able to express myself. Reading books, listening to songs, talking with my friends, about everything, about nothing : that's all I ever liked to do. I had so much to tell, to say, that I started to write everything down in notebooks. From there, a passion was born: writing. And then, podcasts quickly appeared on the web, I wanted to start sharing some anecdotes too, to join a community that thought together, like a kind of endless discussion on a hundred different topics. So an idea came to me to combine my storytelling desires with writing.

Far from being a revolutionary concept, let me tell you stories and overflow on ideas that come to my mind and maybe we can discuss together, about everything and nothing : let me tell you something about it.