Tuesday July 28, 2026
Here is my True Confession of how I am still blooing nd finging my voice.
Have you ever felt as though everyone else received the instruction manual for life and somehow, your copy got lost in the mail? That has often been my experience, and 3 college degrees later, I still ask myself what I want to be when I grow up.
My first speech in my Toastmasters Club was titled “Late Bloomer.”
I spoke about how I was a late bloomer, one who takes more time to grow, learn and shine,in high school, college, and even in the early years of my career. https://share.google/iDmurY3L8uQlp7mJP
But now, in my seventies, I have discovered something surprising……
Sometimes the longest-blooming flowers develop the deepest roots!
While other people seemed to know exactly where they were going, I was often still trying to find the right road.
However, over time, I discovered something important:
Late bloomers continue to bloom.
What I have learned that experience (good or bad) may be life’s greatest teacher.
We can study, earn degrees, complete certifications, and attend conferences and workshops—but nothing completely replaces the lessons we learn by actually living.
Every decade of life brings different obstacles. But every decade also brings new opportunities.
In my younger years, I was building confidence and finding my place in the world. During those middle decades, I was building a career, serving my profession, and developing my leadership skills.
For more than 40 years, I worked in preventive health.
I grew from an uncertain professional into someone who served in leadership positions, helped shape professional policies, mentored others, and reached what I believed was the pinnacle of my profession. I thought I knew exactly who I was.
Then COVID arrived.
Like so many people, I suddenly found myself facing a major life transition.
As a solo-ager (married with no kids), the career and schedule that had defined so much of my identity were gone.
Retirement may sound like a permanent vacation—but it can also leave you asking some very unsettling questions:
Who am I without my career?
What do I do with everything I have learned?
And what comes next?
I realised I did not want the next chapter of my life to be defined only by what I had finished.
I wanted it to be defined by what I was still capable of beginning.
Therefore, once again, this late bloomer went back to learning.
I became a Certified Transformational Health and Life Coach and a Women’s Fitness Specialist. I wanted to draw on my decades of experience in preventive health and apply it in a new way—to help other women remain strong, purposeful, and vibrant as they navigate their own life transitions.
That new direction eventually evolved into my trademark lifestyle and philosophy, AGE-GILITY™.
AGE-GILITY is not about denying our age.
Trust me, our hips and knees will usually remind us!
It is about combining the wisdom that comes with age with the agility to adapt, grow, and continue moving forward.
However, I soon discovered that knowledge and ideas alone were not enough.
I needed to communicate them. I needed to find my voice.
That realisation brought me to Toastmasters.
At first, I joined because I wanted to become a better speaker.
But Toastmasters gave me much more than speaking techniques.
It gave me opportunities to continue developing my leadership skills, listen more carefully, accept feedback, and become more confident in sharing my ideas.
Most importantly, Toastmasters helped me recognise that my voice could serve a greater purpose.
As I became more comfortable speaking, I also began creating.
Orginally, I began writing blog posts and doing Facebook Lives, transitionaing into pubishing.
Then, developed my signature program, the Growth Purpose System™, or GPS, to help people navigate life’s transitions by aligning their growth and purpose with personalised systems.
Now with five pubished books on the bookshelf, I written about movement, retirement, purpose, healthy aging,… and creating a home and life that support the person we are still becoming.
Through speaking and writing, I finally discovered that I am not simply a retired dental hygienist who became a coach.
I am a creator.
Today, I no longer worry about being a late bloomer.
I have learned that there is no deadline for discovering a new purpose, finding your voice, or becoming the person you were meant to be.
Our lives are not straight roads. They are filled with detours, roadblocks, and unexpected opportunities.
Sometimes our personal GPS even tells us to make a U-turn! Our GPS continues to recalculate as we change.
None of us ever truly arrives at a final destination.
But as long as we remain willing to learn, grow, and recalculate, we are never truly lost.
I may have reached the pinnacle of one profession, but that was not the end of my journey. It was simply the beginning of a new route—as a coach, speaker, author, and creator.
Therefore, when someone now asks me what I want to be when I grow up, my answer is simple:
I am still deciding. I am still growing. And I am still blooming.
Bye for now.
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