Out With the Old…?

Nearly ten years ago, I co-created a television show (that got optioned but never sold) about a woman in her forties going back to college. The lead character wanted the full college experience, which included living in the dorms and rushing a sorority. The production company made us change her age because they felt it was too far-fetched for a forty-something woman.

As usual, Hollywood was wrong!

Next week, I, Gabrielle Michel, a forty-two-year-old woman, am going back to college to get my BA in Religious, Spiritual and Holistic Studies. While most of the program is done online, I will be attending a nine-day residency in Vermont where, yep, you guessed it - I will be staying in the dorms. Not once, but two times per year.

I remember a story of someone saying they couldn’t possibly go back to college to fulfill a dream because they would be fifty years old by the time they finished the four-year program and graduate. A wise person said, “You’ll be fifty in four years anyway, you might as well be fifty with a degree.”

It’s never too late to follow a dream, to finish a project, to go back to school, to meet someone and fall in love, etc. I can hear the “yeah, buts” already. Yeah, but I’m too old, young, poor, rich, tall, short and so on. Well, you might as well be too old, young, poor, rich, tall, short and happy, right?

So my wish for all of you in 2009 is that you not only dream big, but that all of your dreams come true.

Happy New Year.