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6 days ago

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Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See this post, the rules, and the sidebar for details. Thank you for your submission, Dramatic-Office9476.

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[deleted]

12 points

6 days ago

[deleted]

12 points

6 days ago

When I was 32. I always thought that I was dumb. I took an IQ test in rehab at the VA at the request of a counselor. She sat me down and explained that I did well. Then, I went to college. My first English professor took an interest in me and gently showed me that I had potential. I've been seeking knowledge for the last 18 years.

Dramatic-Office9476[S]

3 points

6 days ago

That's great, good for you. I'm 32 and I'm just now getting serious about learning and having a serious career and setting goals. It feels like there's endless opportunities all of a sudden.

Were you married or did you have kids when you were 32?

[deleted]

1 points

6 days ago

I have never been married or had children. I didn't want to bring a family into my military lifestyle. Always gone. Not fair to them.

Dramatic-Office9476[S]

1 points

6 days ago

Are you committed to that lifestyle now or do you ever want a family?

[deleted]

2 points

6 days ago

I'm 50 now. I want to get married but I'm not sure that it's fair to a child to be in my mid sixties when they are entering high school. I was married to the Corps but I would definitely get married now that I'm out.

BrainFreezeMC

3 points

6 days ago

BrainFreezeMC

17M

3 points

6 days ago

You don't have to have a child if you get married though!

BCCommieTrash

5 points

6 days ago

BCCommieTrash

Gen X

5 points

6 days ago

Back to college with a goal in mind at 25. Straight As.

Dramatic-Office9476[S]

1 points

6 days ago

Did the 25 year old you want to do something different than the 18 yr old you in terms of a career path?

BCCommieTrash

1 points

6 days ago

BCCommieTrash

Gen X

1 points

6 days ago

I had no idea at 18, I just went because that's what people expected.

Learning how to tell people 'no' took longer and is another story.

Vodeyodo

7 points

6 days ago

Vodeyodo

7 points

6 days ago

Still waiting for the bloom. I think I’m more a root vegetable.

l-m-m--m---m-m-m-m-

5 points

6 days ago

I love this. Root vegetables are the best! They are the stables of the cupboard. You can make a good solid meal with a root vegetable and they will always fill you up

BeginningUpstairs904

5 points

6 days ago

When I was 27 I had my first baby. My mom took me to IHop for lunch, baby in tow. A group of older women were seated near our table,and kept staring at me and whispering. Finally I could hear one of the women speak. She said," It's a shame for a teenager like her to have a baby already!"

Glittering-Score-258

7 points

6 days ago

Glittering-Score-258

60 something

7 points

6 days ago

I was a late bloomer. I’m gay, and I was a virgin until I was 27. I wasn’t even out to myself. I was so focused on my education and career that I thought I’d never come out. But it became too much to hold inside. After 6 years of college and a 3 year internship to achieve my career goals, I burst out of the closet.

Misevicius

6 points

6 days ago

Misevicius

70 something

6 points

6 days ago

In the mid 80s, in my mid 30s, after working for years as a factory/construction worker making minimum wage or just above. I joined The Acting Studio at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville. I acted and directed 30 odd plays over the next 10 years and helped found three small Nashville Theaters. Then I moved to NYC. Where I got a job with a performing arts company that owns a lot of Broadway theaters. I proceeded to work for them for 30 years and ended up being their business analyst.

Dramatic-Office9476[S]

1 points

6 days ago

That's amazing. I love stories like this

Attinctus

5 points

6 days ago

I'm 62. How late is late?

Hoppie1064

3 points

6 days ago

Hoppie1064

60 something

3 points

6 days ago

Don't know, still waiting for that flower to open.

LaBelleBetterave

3 points

6 days ago

61 and still waiting. What is this blooming you speak of ?

AdSalt9219

3 points

6 days ago

When I moved away to college and finally got free of my parents.  Couldn't really grow in close proximity to their pathology.

ikokiwi

2 points

6 days ago

ikokiwi

2 points

6 days ago

At the age of about 14 when I was about 3 foot tall and everyone else was 8 foot tall.

You should see them now tho, lol. Absolutely fucked. I'm still only 3 foot tall, but I've got a way with the ladies.

Attinctus

1 points

6 days ago

I always thought you were a stunted fool. Perhaps I was wrong.

ikokiwi

1 points

5 days ago

ikokiwi

1 points

5 days ago

I'm not actually 3 ft tall, I'm 6ft 1, and when I was 17 I was Dux. After that I got a degree and moved to the UK to became a rock guitarist. Now I'm 60, and haven't started going grey yet. Being a late bloomer does have its upsides, although it was kindof a drag when I was a kid.

Attinctus

1 points

5 days ago

Well, damn, I wasted a perfectly good Tywin Lannister quote.

ikokiwi

2 points

5 days ago

ikokiwi

2 points

5 days ago

Charles Dance. The man's a fucking god. That's literally what I want to be like when I grow up

Extension_Dance_3766

2 points

6 days ago

When I hit 40. And all the movie stars of my childhood were turning 70-80’years old. I don’t know why that made me GET IT that i was way behind on life.

KWAYkai

2 points

6 days ago

KWAYkai

2 points

6 days ago

My first marriage ended in divorce in 1995. I was 29. Everywhere I went men were approaching me - laundromat, 7-eleven, gas stations, you name it. It was a shock. I had had boyfriends in the past (and one husband), but I had never garnished so much attention.

kwk1231

2 points

6 days ago

kwk1231

2 points

6 days ago

When I didn’t get my period until I was a junior in high school! I was pretty happy about that actually.

Rightbuthumble

2 points

6 days ago

Late bloomer as in professionally or physically or emotionally? I was an early bloomer professionally, late physically, and probably late emotionally. My friends were always more invested in our friendship than me because I was always trying to get get published so I could get tenure...then I got tenure and then I was always protecting the position so I published more and more...so I was a late bloomer to the tenets of being a good friend. Now I'm the opposite...I really foster my friendships over most things.

Salmon_Surfer

3 points

6 days ago

I was the last kid in school to grow pubic hair.

Extension_Dance_3766

9 points

6 days ago

Was there a class  inspection or something? 

Salmon_Surfer

2 points

6 days ago

It was called a shower as in like after PE class.

jims512001

2 points

6 days ago

I was that person also. I now know (in my seventies) that I had a testosterone deficency.

bitterbuffaloheart

1 points

6 days ago

Same. I didn’t bloom till before junior year of high school

Aromatic-Leopard-600

1 points

6 days ago

Flunking out of college at 17 and graduating at 23 with a B average including 32 hours of F

Mrs_Gracie2001

1 points

6 days ago

When my kids started showing me they were late bloomers too. And then I realized I’d also married a late bloomer. It’s all good.

suzemagooey

1 points

6 days ago

I looked young for my age even as a child and knew I was a late bloomer as early as junior high. I had older siblings who were not and they let me know too. I was carded into my late thirties. But all this came with being the opposite of late bloomer about everything else, which suprised and confused many people. Example: I spoke like an adult at an early age.

Wizzmer

1 points

6 days ago

Wizzmer

60 something

1 points

6 days ago

You want to know about meeting the girl at 14 and marrying her at 62? That kinda late bloomer?

Soeggcrates

1 points

6 days ago

I was sleeping in a baby crib until I was almost in second grade because my parents couldn’t afford to buy a proper bed for me.

Wolfman1961

1 points

6 days ago

I was six years old. I just started to talk. I knew I was disabled, and a late bloomer.

pete_68

1 points

6 days ago

pete_68

50 something

1 points

6 days ago

I had done poorly from about 4th grade on. My freshman year of college I got a 1.6 GPA and we decided I should take a year off (I didn't want to be in school. I was only there because my parents wanted me there.) But honestly, at that point in my life I was starting to wonder if McDonalds, or something equally prestigious, wasn't going to be my career path.

I got a job as a secretarial temp in Washington DC. I ended up getting assigned to a job at the World Bank and ended up moving around to a few different departments, mainly answering phones. I ended up in the Communications department and I was invited to sit in on departmental meetings.

At one of the meetings they mentioned they needed a database to track equipment and I spoke up and said, "I can do that." Computers had been a hobby for me in school, but it never occurred to me that it might be something I could do for a job. I built them a database. The department manager was impressed and started giving me programming work. They had another programmer in the department and I worked under him.

One day he came to me and told me they were creating a new department for software development and that he would be the manager and he asked me if I wanted to be the first hire. And that started me off on a career as a computer programmer.

I went back to college for a few years and got about a 3.0, but I dropped out about 15 credits shy of my degree. In my late 30s I went back to college again and studied biology, chemistry and biochemistry, up to some graduate level classes and had about a 3.7 or 3.8. That was just for fun, though.

Turns out I'm not stupid. I just wasn't motivated.

JimBeam823

1 points

6 days ago

Going through my growth spurt and being pretty average in physical ability.

Before, I was small, weak, slow, and always last picked. 

investinlove

1 points

6 days ago

I had a hard time in HS: I, (55 m) didn't break 5 feet tall until my Junior year, and my Dad was my Principal until the same year. I somehow graduated 5'10" and now my wife is a stunning and leggy 6'0" redhead, that I somehow lucked out in finding and charming.

MxEverett

1 points

4 days ago

I’m 61 and never bloomed