Some missed opportunities linger. Not because we didn’t try, or because we weren’t ready but because we didn’t fit the mold someone else built for us. As I was reflecting the other day, for so many missed opportunities, so many forks in the road.
I remember one such time from years ago when I was living in Canada. I was invited to join a program in art curation along with an internship. I was very excited as it aligned with my work, my path, my passions. But just as quickly, I was turned away. Why? Because after submitting my paperwork they found out I had just turned 30. I was no longer eligible. One birthday too late.
The hurt from that kind of rejection isn’t just personal — it’s systemic. We live in a world that carves opportunities into age brackets, social groups, and all sorts of checkboxes. What’s meant to include and organize can also exclude and divide.
It’s strange how society’s rules — designed, supposedly, to make things fair — often end up doing the opposite, and impacting our life path. They protect ideas that don’t always hold up under real life.
What happens when you’re a late bloomer? When your life path curves instead of climbs in a straight line? What happens when your “moment” doesn’t align with someone else’s schedule? For me, it meant I missed out on lots of opportunities.
It can also make you feel inadequate. Not because you’re not good enough, but because you don’t fit the criteria. And that feeling can stay with you for a long time. We don’t talk about how deeply these rules can hurt. Or how many lives have been quietly re-routed because someone somewhere decided to close the window of opportunity on us.
I think about all the lost potential — not just mine, but others’ too. All the voices silenced, the paths redirected. And I wonder what could our world look like if it were more forgiving? More flexible? More grey instead of black and white?
What if opportunities didn’t come with an expiration date? What if we begin to imagine a world less divisive, where late bloomers still get to bloom?