Here we go!

The whole idea for ‘It’s Never Too Late’, the name of this blog, really started over 20 years ago with my decision to go to massage school. I was approaching 50, my kids were starting high school, and I’d worked for my whole life at jobs which were necessities, not something I had a deep desire to do nor that spoke to my core strengths.

I was working as a barista at a grocery store and knew I couldn’t do it the rest of my life. I needed something that I could feel proud of, that spoke to ME, and didn’t just pay for my family’s healthcare. My best friend, who lives in Tucson, invited me to visit her. We both thought that being in a different environment than the suburbs of Seattle would help me decide my next steps.

After several days in Tucson, with no progress figuring out what I could do, my friend suggested I see her psychic, tell her my story and see what she had to say. I figured, it can’t hurt, and it might help. If nothing else, it will be an interesting experience!

I’d never been to a psychic before, and didn’t know what to expect. Genevieve was an older French woman dressed casually in the style of a bag lady, and not even a bit woo-woo. She’d been a psychic most of her life. She gave me a stack of paper and a pen. She told me to take notes because she’d talk fast. She asked to hold a piece of my jewelry so she could pick up my vibrations.

I told her how much I hated my current job and that I needed to get out of there ASAP. Her first advice was that I needed that job so I could go to school, because I needed to retrain. She told me how to manage my feelings about the job, and how to bless my work and my coworkers because that would make it possible for me to stay there while I retrained.

The work she saw for me had to do with alternative healthcare. She mentioned several possibilities such as hypnotherapy and reflexology. Massage came up several times. She even pointed out that massage was covered by insurance in my state, Washington.

I’d never even had a massage before, I had never thought of the healthcare field for myself, I was not scientifically minded—my degree was in Asian Studies (which Genevieve had pointed out had never gone anywhere!) But, Genevieve had made such an impression on me that I decided to look into her advice and follow my intuition as she had.

I spent the first few weeks after coming home looking into the various fields she mentioned, but massage always seemed the most practical. Genevieve had also mentioned that I could help people with my hands, that I could use my hands. I was lucky that Seattle had two really good massage schools at that time, which Genevieve had also mentioned.

I chose which school to attend by following my intuition again. One just felt like it was the right place, I loved the way the head of the school and the instructors talked about the school. Also, the way the instruction was structured would work out very well with my work schedule.

I started receiving massage and loved it. I visited the school often to sit in on classes; I received massages from instructors, and did my due diligence to be sure I was making the right decision. I enrolled in the class starting in September 1999, a few days before my 50^th birthday.

I worried about starting such a program at 50—would I be strong enough physically? Would I understand the curriculum? Would I fit in with much younger classmates?

But I was also terribly excited! I would be going to school again, something I loved; the school was in Seattle, not the suburbs where I lived. I hadn’t realized how much I missed being in the city! I would be meeting new people with different experiences!

It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I was still working full-time and I had to not only attend class four hours a day, I had to put in hours studying as well as giving and receiving a certain number of massages each week outside of class. My kids and my husband had to pick up most of my duties around the house, which was hard.

I was totally focused on doing my very best and becoming a good massage therapist. I wanted to show my kids that it was possible to change direction as an adult and learn a new profession. I wanted to show them that it was never too late.

I surprised myself by getting positive feedback from the first. I was good at giving massage, which helped my confidence. I overcame my bashfulness about the body, my own and other people’s. I was fascinated learning anatomy and physiology. I finally had a sense of being powerful and good at something I had chosen to do.

The whole process of deciding to go to massage school, finding out I loved it, graduating and then building a career as a massage therapist for 16 years is one of the most significant events of my life. It started with following my intuition that it was not too late to take on an entirely new career at age 50. The many gifts of the experience continue to surprise me even now, despite being retired for three years.

I still believe it is NEVER TOO LATE, and today is exactly two months from my 70^th birthday. Things are different than when I was 50, of course, and I continue to believe that we can learn and take on new things as we age. Many things have changed and been tested in the last 20 years, understanding change and having the resilience to adapt and even chart a new course when necessary is a useful skill. I’ll be back in a week with another story.