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What I Missed When I Switched Careers in My 30s
My sketch of a plan and its plot holes.
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I’m a 34-year-old woman and the #1 question I get these days is “When do you graduate?”
No one is asking me age-appropriate questions like what are my thoughts on my latest promotion, when are my upcoming nuptials, or when my baby is due. (I’m neither engaged nor pregnant, but you get the point). Instead, I’m getting a question that makes me feel ten years younger — but not in a good way because I also feel ten years behind.
I decided to get a second degree in my 30s, and as fate would have it, my graduation ceremony will fall on my 35th birthday. I’ll be starting a brand new career at the midpoint of my life, give or take a few years, but I’ll be starting at the same place as any 24-year-old graduate: ground zero. Any job I take will be entry-level, and that means making entry-level money, the kind that might feel incredible to a barely grownup…
