About 2,047 years ago, a Roman historian wrote the eternal words, “potius seo quam numquam.“
Or in our words, “rather late than never.“
But nobody told my high school teacher, Ms. Kattan, that.
She made it so awful to be late that I would rather skip school than face her wrath. I often chose ‘never.’
As children, life throws all sorts of deadlines at us: you’re an adult at 18, have kids by 35, retire at 65, die at 85…
But, time doesn’t really exist.
It’s just an agreement that we make with ourselves so that we can meet people for lunch or catch the train.
The danger is when we start to believe that it’s real.
We miss our goals or deadlines, and we start to believe those dreadful words: “It’s too late.”
It’s never too late.
If it was too late, you couldn’t switch from journalism to midwifery at 32.
And you couldn’t give up engineering and move to Florence to design shoes at 55.
And you definitely couldn’t be 74 years old and follow your dream of being a stand-up comedian — like Julie Kertesz did.
But you can do any of those things.
These stories prove that late is better than never.
So, screw you, Ms. Kattan.
I might be late, but at least I turned up.