Monday Motivation: Age is Just a Number

Today is my birthday. If you told twelve-year-old-me I wouldn’t be a best-selling author or have at least one screenplay made by thirty-six, I would spiral into a weeks-long wallow. In the age of YouTube, Vine and now TikTok, celebrities are made overnight. As a teenager, I was at the very beginning of this phenomenon. I always wanted my successes to move faster than they did.

I meandered throughout college until I discovered you could major in film. After feeling like an outcast most of my life, I finally found where I belonged, and I found my people. After getting a BFA in film, I went on to get an MFA in writing and producing for television. I dabbled in reality TV casting, which was a blast. But there were three consistent things in my life: writing, art, and wanting to be a mom. 

I didn’t want to be in the city for 10 to 12 hours a day with the commute. I knew when I had kids, I wanted to be there. So at 36, I don’t have any books published. I do have two awesome kids who bring me endless joy (and endless frustration at times), plus a third on the way. I have some professional writing credits I’m proud of, but again, nothing like 12-year-old-me thought.

The truth is, most success isn’t overnight, and in my case, it’s not even in decades. Don’t measure your success against someone else’s. We all have kids, or sick parents, or bills looming over our head. We all have lives, and those lives take precedent over our dreams. Don’t stress about your accomplishments. If you keep trying, they will come, no matter how far down the road. Age is just a number, after all.