Is a person ever too old to become a writer? Or an expat? For Jerry Nelson, our expat guest blogger from Argentina, the answer to both is no. You’re never too old to become a writer and certainly not too old to be an expat.
According to a 2018 survey, 81% of American expats are satisfied with their life overseas. Around 56% of those who reported being unhappy blame their mood on a lack of a ‘personal support network'.
Almost all those who are satisfied point to the flexibility their jobs allow them. Maybe unsurprising is this factoid: the major are writers — or wannabe writers.
Despite insufficient previous expat experience, US expats seem truly enjoying life abroad — over two in five (44%) state they are planning to stay abroad, possibly forever, compared to barely 32% among all respondents worldwide.
While love is the most frequently mentioned motivation for relocating (17%), about one in eleven US expats (9%) say that a better quality of life was their main reason for moving abroad. Being, or becoming, professional writers account for that as most think of themselves as a potential modern-day Heminway, idling away hours at sidewalk cafes, sipping expresso and having long, deep and meaningful conversations until the sun goes down and then switching to scotch and soda, ala a Hemingway.
Simultaneously, many expats who turn to writing are fearful of being considered “past their prime” for turning to writing. Is a person ever too old to begin a writing career?
NO!
Often people ask if I regret ‘wasting' the decades before learning to believe in my writing. I take their question seriously and tell them, “No. I was gestating, gathering experiences and the material I tap into when writing my articles today.”
As expats, we are people of life and of experience. We are the ones who have loved and lost. We have fought and survived the wickedest day's life can throw at any single human being. But we are also the ones who don't give up — no matter how bitter life finds to go wrong. We are people of a “certain age” and we were born to be writers.
Although we celebrate young writers who achieve success, we are drowning on the Internet's listing of “Best Writer Under 30.” What about us? Those over fifty and have dreamed of becoming a writer?
The best time in our culture to be a writer over fifty is now. Going online opens up opportunities which never existed before. There has never been a better time.
We can create a blog, self-publish and build a battalion-size legion of followers. Between Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, I have about a half-million ‘fans and followers.
Where we get it right
Life experiences
Our perspective today is different from when we were in our 20s. Life experiences have shaped and moulded us into the person we are now. After many years of being ourselves, we can write from a full and rich life instead of simply imagining what a life that matters may look like.
Wisdom application
Until the universe has its way with us, we are not engaging people. Wisdom is the successful application of experiences which teach us where the darkness lives.
Try to tell someone in the 20s that marrying that toxic person won't work out. But at fifty-something, we can laugh and shake our head as we know where that relationship is going to fizzle and die.
I've met thousands of people
I don't have to imagine characters. I've dated them, married some. I've drunk with more than a few any day of the week and I've lived my life surrounded by thousands of them.
The depth of my writing is now measured by the depth of my life. As a fiction writer, I need to look no further than the last couple of decades to find the good, bad, crazy and all the uglies which make for wonderful characters. Since people are the story, I've lived long enough to meet enough to fill books for the remainder of my life,.
The takeaway
Many of us are or were experts at what we did, but we are so done with that part of our life we forget that what we do daily might be of importance. It took you years to be good at what you do, why not share that experience with the rest of us?
