Today is Never Too Late to Be Brand New

When we think of change, it can sound both scary and exciting. While I know from firsthand experience that change can be incredible, I also know how intimidating it can be. Something I believe that everyone should keep in mind is that it is never too late to make a change in your life, whether it’s big or small!

As someone entering my mid-20s, I have often found myself thinking that it is too late to change paths. When I stop and think about that, it seems quite ridiculous. How can it be too late to do anything when I’m only in my 20s? One thing I really want to stress here is that age doesn’t matter in this case. Even if I were in my 60s, the sentiment would stay the same. As long as you’re alive, you are always entitled to make changes. By agonizing over being “too late,” you are only delaying your own bright future.

My Journey Towards Change

A few years ago, I made a big change in my academic journey, and while it intimidated me at the time, it proved to be a great decision. I may be a journalism major now, but a few years ago, when I started going to college, I was actually an aviation major. As I’m sure you can imagine, that was a major shift. By no means was it a seamless switch; it took me a long time to make that transition. It was an incredibly difficult decision for me because I loved—and still love—aviation. But after a few unfortunate events in my life, I realized that it wasn’t the most practical route for me. When I decided to leave the aviation program, I had no idea what to do next, so I told myself that I would take a semester off from school.

As it commonly goes, one semester quickly became a gap year. Instead of figuring out what I wanted to do, I found myself losing motivation to go back to school. I had already taken a gap year previously after I had graduated from high school. I also had not taken full-time credit loads in college because of personal reasons that prevented me from doing so. So there I was, in my early 20s, with no degree and no concrete plan of going back to school anytime soon. That was definitely not how I had planned for things to go. At this point, I had started to believe that transitioning to working full-time and dropping out of college would be the path I would take.

Many of my friends had already earned their associate's degrees and were working towards their bachelor’s degree. Maybe I was too overwhelmed with everything to think clearly, and this is where my logic became incredibly flawed. I started to worry about how people my age were about to graduate college with a bachelor's degree, and that if I went back to school, I would essentially be starting all over again from the beginning. I was endlessly stressed about how I would be well into my 20s and far behind my peers. I had fallen into the trap of believing that it was too late for me to restart my college education. 

Around this time, my dad sat down with me and asked me what my plan was: if I was going to return to school or go into working full-time. He assured me that he fully supported either decision, but that he wanted me to actually take the time to think about it before I made my choice. But, he also let me know that plenty of people end up going back to college later on in their lives, so even if I chose not to go back then, he would still be supportive if I did eventually. This was important to me because having a strong support system makes the process of making big changes in your life easier. When you receive reassurance about your choices, change seems less scary. My dad and I aren’t the most open with our emotions, so for him to show this concern and empathy for me really moved something within me, and I began thinking about this seriously. 

I asked myself what reasons I had for not going back to school, and most of them all led back to that fear of being “too old” and “too late” to be taking freshman-level courses. I realized then that I did have a desire to graduate from college, and if the only thing stopping me from pursuing that goal was fear, I had to work on overcoming it. I remember asking myself if I had ever had this attitude towards other people or if I was just holding myself to this standard of being “too old” for a big change. I immediately realized that I was just being mean to myself and that I was stopping myself from pursuing a new path due to a fear of something that didn’t really matter. No one was going to judge me, and even if they did, who cares? It’s my life, and other people’s judgment shouldn’t prevent me from achieving my own goals and happiness.

Why You Should Embrace Change

I think that it is a common experience to be afraid of making changes because of how much time the journey will take. A while ago, I saw an exchange online where someone was worrying about starting a new project because it was going to take a few years to complete it. While many comments were supportive, one in particular stuck with me because the overall sentiment was that time will still pass regardless of whether or not you start a project. It made me reflect on how often I agonize over how long something will take for me to complete and how many times I’ve let that stop me from pursuing something in the past. If you’re afraid to make a change in your life because you think that the journey will take too long, remind yourself that the days will continue to pass regardless. You can either start now and make those changes as soon as possible, or you can keep delaying it and pushing the result further back for yourself. Instead of wasting time worrying about the outcome, take that leap and enjoy the journey!

Remember to trust yourself. You know yourself better than anyone, so you know when you’re ready to make a change in your life. Change can bring forth so many wonderful things that you wouldn’t get to experience if you were to stay in the same spot forever! Sometimes you may not see results right away, but things always work out in the end. Even if a new path doesn’t go exactly as planned, it creates new possibilities that may take you exactly where you’re supposed to be. 

While this wasn’t the path I imagined, I was able to find a new passion when I made the big decision to go back to college and switch majors. I’ve always loved writing, and journalism allows me to do so professionally. Looking back, I regret all of the time I spent agonizing over taking that step because everything ended up working out fine, and I love the path I’m on now. Instead of living with regret, embrace change in your life!

Do Not Wait

Any change is worth making if you have the desire for it. If I could pass along a simple but effective piece of motivation to anyone scared of making a big change, I would recommend this Dear Abby advice column. In one entry, someone wrote about how they’re 36 years old with a passion for medicine, but are worried about how studying to be a physician would take seven years, and they’d be 43 years old by the time they finish. The advice they received from Abby was in the form of a question: “And how old will you be in 7 years if you don’t go back to college?” I find this to be an incredible eye-opener that makes you think about how you can get started on your journey today, or you can just let the days pass you by without making any progress. When it comes to cases like this about going back to school, remember that higher education does not discriminate against people for their age; there is no age limit for taking college courses. If you are passionate about it, you can pursue higher education at any age!

Not every change has to be a major life-changing event. Maybe you want to adjust your routine or start a new hobby. Even small changes can add up and improve your quality of life. Perhaps you are considering a big change. We all will face both types of change eventually in our lifetimes. Whatever it is, you should keep in mind that you can always make changes, no matter how old you are or how much time it will take.

About the Author

Amelia Martinez is a Journalism and Media Studies major in the Public Relations/Advertising track at the College of Southern Nevada and currently a Blog/Newsletter intern at the Love Yourself Foundation. She hopes to one day apply her education in a professional career within a creative space. She has always been fond of the arts and spends much of her free time watching films, reading books and comics/manga, and listening to music.