I guess there is nothing new to having a midlife crisis at the age of 45. It might be an idea for card designers to create 45th birthday cards with a health warning, along the lines of WARNING do not pass this point unless you are prepared to look back on your life and be disappointed!
And so on the 1st September 2013 I walked into my middle age and crashed into my midlife crisis. Where had it all gone? Mostly my career, my stella rise to fame and fortune, the big beautiful house, the fast cars and the expensive wines, power suites, power bobs, power meetings? Instead what I looked back on was a fragmented career of medium level office work, which started before every desk had a computer and finished with a the advent of Social Media dominating my local authority PR/Marketing position. I had left to bring up my son and now 6 years later and his growing independence, and the completion of our house renovation I stood wondering where does it go from here? And then there was the fading memory of a degree in foreign languages and the slow demise of my language skills.
What was I going to do with my life? How was I going to claw back the missing years? Establish a career? Power the suite, get a taste for expensive wines, meet the meetings? I applied for business management jobs. Studied the syllabus for an MBA, Local Authority Best Practice Startegy, Learnt my KPI's and that a well run project has a controlled and organised beginning, middle and end, (this stuff is so obvious my 6 year old can do it) put on my suite (power one of course) and went through the interview from hell. Bunny in the headlights, mind gone blank. Total stagefright! I left the hotel in tears and didn't stop crying for 2 days.. Feedback from the interviewer (young enough to be my little brother) made me smile, "she was absolutely lovely.........." BUT, hhhhmmm I didn't think I was being interviewed for EHarmony or a professional singles site, But if I can't get a job but still look good enough for the staff to be interested then all is not lost. I could quite get used to this being 45 lark. All power to me!
