While on the elliptical this morning, (yes, I go to the gym to escape) I was reading an article about today's middle-aged parents on the subject of 'empty nesters'. The article was talking about how people no longer curl up and wait to die, feeling forlorn and lonely after their children move out. Todays parents have lengthier life spans, and have much more to do after the kiddos find a new address. We take over their rooms and remove the concert posters, and trade in the milk crates for office furniture or other grown up stuff. Some couples decide to sell their suburban homes where they raised their family and make the move to the city to become urbanite condo dwellers. They travel more. They feel like newlyweds again. They begin a new career or home business. They have peace and quiet and solitude. The article talked about how raising kids has now become a brief interlude in our lives. We have 20-30 years left after our children are gone to enjoy this life and do some really interesting things. It's a new stage in life.
I'm 45, and I only have 2 (out of 5) more kids left in grammer school. I was 3 months pregnant with my first son when I graduated from college. I was an art major, and after graduation, I traded the opportunity for a career in art to begin motherhood. Now, 21 years later, I'm thinking about the second half of my life and what I want to do with it. I don't believe that this is a time to go out to pasture and be depressed because the kids are gone. I have a very positive attitude, and feel it will be an opportunity for me to explore new avenues with my life that I wasn't able to before when I was raising my children.
Being the creative person I am, I have such a strong yearning to be a high school Art teacher. When I was a young college student, I didn't have the forethought to get my education degree. Actually, I don't know what I was thinking. All I know is I was young and a bit squirrley (or maybe that was the pregnancy brain). I've been regretting this mistake for many years now, and the thought of it hasn't left me. I still have 20 good years left to work, God willing (and more than that to just have fun!), and I want to do something exciting and rewarding as I enter my 50's. I believe not only will it benefit myself, but there's a chance my kids will look at me as an interesting person who is doing something meaningful which will keep my happier and give me purpose.
At this midpoint in my life, I feel much more confident, wiser and independent than I have at any other time in my life. It's a phenomena that happens to women when they reach their forties. For me, it was like it happend overnight. I think now is the right time to pursue this dream of mine, and it feels like my heart or something is pulling me that direction. At the same time, I wonder if there is a need for art teachers, and what are my chances of entering the teaching field in my late 40's and will I be taken seriously? This ambition of mine can be realized and all I need to do is go back to school for 2 years to get my education degree.
Do any of you have an urge for a midlife career change or maybe you are like me and will just be starting your career? Do you have a longing to do something you let slip away when you were younger and now, feel like it might be too late?
What are you going to do with the second half of your life? Do you have an interesting story to tell about what you did after your children grew up? I'd love to hear your experiences. Please share with me...and if you have any knowledge about art teaching, throw it my way. I'll catch it and run with it!
