Anybody (else) figured out in late age missed whole life mission/purpose?

[UTUSN]

Mine: Music.

Had to be "practical". But, hey, ai wipes out all endeavor, just relax.

[Ptah]

1. Pink Floyd wrote about exactly that:

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

https://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/time-dark-lyrics.html

[UTUSN]

5. My "poetry" line: Spent my life waiting to be born.

Wrote that in adolescence - self-defeating prophecy/attitude

[yonder]

7. +1.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Yep: art (not doing but learning/studying), France (going and going and going) and cats (TNR)

[LakeArenal]

3. No but I really never figured out my life mission...

Always thought I’d like to be a housewife.

My mom. She played bridge and golf. Had a housekeeper, a Cadillac and really nice clothes.

We needed two incomes for our life so work got in the way of my golfing.

[mercuryblues]

4. for

me it was being nice. Not changing my ways.

I have a brutal takedown of one of my siblings scheduled for later this summer. Pretty much telling a 50+ year old woman to grow the fuck up and take care of her shit.

[UTUSN]

6. Not advising here, media psychologist David VISCOTT said, Leave the old people alone

[mercuryblues]

10. As an older sibling, I wish she would leave me alone

She created a shit-show across several households and is acting like the victim.

I truly believe I was born to be nice. But, damn Skippy, some people make it hard. After decades of her juvenile shit, I am over it.

[multigraincracker]

8. Still working on what I want to be when I grow up.

In my 70s and still have time.

[UTUSN]

11. Urrgh, am 76

[multigraincracker]

13. Looks like the best age to

run for President these days.

[RobinA]

16. I'm Not Sure

you're missing much. I had several ideas of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I tried several of them and pretty much discovered that being interested in a subject and working in that area are two VERY different things. The reality of employment has been bad since the '80's and it's getting markedly worse. My big interest in life was psychology. I have worked in several psychology jobs over the years and in today's structured, manualized, bean counting world they hold no interest for me what so ever. Not only that, but it's taken away my interest in psychology.

Another interest of mine since childhood was photography. It was suggested to me on several ocassions that I should look for a job in that. I knew if photography became a "must-do" thing I would rapidly hate it, so luckily never took that suggestion.

[multigraincracker]

17. Went nuts when I was 40.

Went to the psych ward and it was the best thing that ever happen to me. Went back to school and got a degree in Psychology and minor in Anthropology. By then I was only a few years from retirement. Did that at 52 and love it.

[calguy]

9. Well... According to George Carlin...

https://m.

In my next life I want to live my life backwards.
You start out dead and get that out of the way.
Then you wake up in an old people’s home
feeling better every day.
You get kicked out for being too healthy,
go collect your pension,
and then when you start work,
you get a gold watch and a party on your first day.
You work 40 years
until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.
You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous,
then you are ready for high school.
You then go to primary school,
you become a kid,
you play.
You have no responsibilities,
you become a baby until you are born.
And then you spend your last 9 months
floating in luxurious spa-like conditions
with central heating and room service on tap,
larger quarters every day and then Voila!
You finish off as an orgasm.
I rest my case.

[hay rick]

12. My brother.

I have a half-brother who was almost a decade older than me. His mother died and my father remarried. My brother had both musical talent and great love for music. Our father insisted he had to get a practical education instead of pursuing his first love. He became a doctor and was halfway through a residency in dermatology when he decided he had to follow his dreams instead.

"Following his dreams" was his literal path as he was starting to have vivid, related, musical dreams which he believed was his destiny to transcribe. His musical background was classical piano. His dreams required him to become a composer. After dropping out of his residency, he took his wife and two kids (and a third on the way), moved to San Diego and got a job reading x-rays. The 9 to 5 job gave him time to compose part time, but the income was insufficient to support his family without going deep into debt. His economic status as an MD enabled him to go deep into debt, but there was a limit and he reached it.

Ultimately he was forced to return to the practice of medicine and pursue music when the work allowed. My brother was always sickly and asthmatic. He had severe allergies which forced him to relocate. He moved to the southwestern corner of Virginia and finished his medical career in a medically-underserved area of the Appalachians.

After he retired he moved to NYC and was able to spend a few good years composing before his mind and body gave out.

He is my hero.

[UTUSN]

14. What a beautiful connection

[highplainsdem]

15. UTUSN, you're never too old to enjoy music and enjoy creating it,

so I hope you will do something with that love of music. I don't know if you sang, or played one or more musical instruments, or wish you did. But you can always begin. You can find pretty good instruments for $200 or less, and lots of free lessons on YouTube. It won't replace a lifelong career in music, but very few musicians, no matter how good, are ever able to support themselves, let alone a family as well, through music alone.

You're retired now, so you can enjoy music without the pressure to earn a living from it.

And you can entertain yourself, and friends, and maybe larger audiences.

[UTUSN]

19. I sincerely appreciate & admire your outlook.

[CTyankee]

18. art history writing. Wrote essays and published here on DU, then put them in a book. Now I'm on

my second art history book and have a 3rd in mind. I am a youngish 82...

[mopinko]

20. i took a swing at several dreams

and fell short pretty much every time.
took me this long to realize that if i had known how sick i was it would have been different.
multiple autoimmune diseases, and some lingering bs from a head injury as a kid. all took subtle tolls. if docs werent always telling me i was fine, maybe ida found the right pace.