searcher, don't doubt it for a second! Onward girlfriend!

It doesn't matter if you're a late bloomer, searcher, you ARE still blooming!! Now if you've gone to seed, that's different!!

Just turned 50. I have been writing since age 10 but my parents always discouraged me. They wanted me to be a teacher so I could keep busy until I met the right man to support me. I studied psychology instead, but never went to work in the field; instead I got married and then ended up working in offices while raising my difficult son. Now that he's out of the house, and I can afford some time off from work, I am pursuing the dream.

Bravo, Late Bloomer! I wanted to study psychology in high school, but didn't want to go to college

Psychology has been very helpful to me in dealing with my son. I think someone should offer me an honorary Ph.D. for all the hours of work I have put in raising him - school meetings, participation in treatment teams, medication management, one-on-one support and counseling ...

It is ironic that I started college as a Special Ed major but switched to Psychology because I decided I didn't want to work with kids with special needs (it tore me up emotionally) and here I have spent all these years as a parent of one, more intensely involved than any teacher would ever be. (Teachers, after all, go home at night and leave the kids they work with, and they get vacations, and they get to retire.)

"Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans."

Late Bloomer, I am enjoying reading your posts, and wanted to take time to say Welcome. Would you own a leopard, if you had the chance?
chick

I would own any kind of cat that wouldn't eat me! We were pretty friendly with a couple that had a "big cat" sanctuary in FL, and their animals were my surrogate pets. Their golden jungle cats had given birth to kittens, and they were keeping one of them as a house pet to see how well she could be domesticated. The husband brought us inside to see her. She was a lovely little thing. He had warned us that she was pretty wild, but when I got down on the floor to talk to her, she approached me and started batting at the string on my sun hat, and soon we were friends. I completely forgot that she was supposed to be fierce and soon she was purring on my shoulder. When the wife came in, she was completely amazed. I hated to put the cat down.

When my son was a toddler, we went to an animal park in NH and I had one of the best experiences of my life there. Their tigers had produced four cubs, and they were allowing the mother to rear two of them, and bottle-feeding the other two. It was late fall, we were almost the only visitors to the park that day, and the keeper took the cubs out to romp in the park -- and we got to play with them. They were about the size of large puppies, with big blue eyes and enormous paws, and I took photographs of my son with them. They played just like kittens, rolling on their backs and biting our hands as we rubbed their tummies. When my son decided to walk away from one, the cub wasn't ready to let go, so he put one of his great big paws on the back of his overalls and kept him from leaving. I will never forget it!

I know big cats don't make good pets, as a rule, because when they reach adolescence they start asserting territorial and dominance instincts -- but I would love to have a job where I could take care of them and get to handle the young ones.

I am new here and am somewhat of a cyber-idiot. I have enjoyed reading all of the posts, especially those related to hot flashes in menopause. I am inspired by all of you who write. I hope to be able to contribute something of interest sometime and to get to know the remarkable women here. I am a retired school counselor with my own counseling/life coaching business. I live in KY with my husband, two golden retrievers and 3 cats. I hope to hear from some of you soon.

Welcome Scoutfinch! I'm a Kentucky girl myself. Was born in Louisville WAY WAY WAY WAY (haha) back in 1947. Interestingly enough I've never seen the city - my Dad was in the Air Force and we were just "passing through" when I was born.

We're happy to have you here - as you already know from looking around in the forum, there are a LOT of interesting ladies populating this place and you are going to love coming here and visiting with all of them. Glad you found us!

Hi to all the newbies since I last dropped in on Monday!