Is It Too Late?
A Personal Essay
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” I read this familiar quote by British author George Elliot (nee Mary Ann Evans) on my Facebook feed today. I am, no doubt, at 76, one of the older members of Facebook. I enjoy seeing and reading about the things my friends and family are doing or are concerned about. I regularly “like” posts so my friends know that I am hovering about, and I often post photos and comments.
I recently retired from a long career — several long careers, actually — and was wondering if at this stage in my life if I can achieve something new. Not new; I always planned to be a fiction writer. I entered academia with this in mind. I could teach, I reasoned, and on the long summers and sabbaticals work on the great American novel.
It didn’t work out that way. I am a take-over kind of guy. One day I woke up and found, in spite of a successful twenty-year run, that I had become lost in endless university meetings as a department head, dean, and grant writer. So I quit.
I went to work in journalism, certainly the chrysalis of many successful story tellers. I was promoted to editor and my goal once again was swallowed into the miasma of meetings as an administrator.
In the meantime I did manage to become a published author — of hundreds of non-fiction articles. But the most important among the many things that I wanted to be “when I grew up” remained illusive.
I might have been an artist: my paintings have a (very small) group of admirers and collectors. I might have been a photographer: my photos have been published scores of time in magazines, newspapers and a handful of books.
But what I really wanted is success as a fiction writer, one whose stories amuse, enchant, impress, disgust or illuminate readers. Before I read that social media post, I suspected it was too late for a septuagenarian to be relevant and to write stories that people might read.
Mary Ann Evans emerged from the Victorian man’s world to become a leading writer of her age. She said it is never too late to be what you might have been. I hope to help prove her right.
