When you feel old...

When you start to feel real old,

and/or real under-accomplished;

like you should have a baby or two (or three or four) by now,

or a better career/more money in the bank;

etc...

Like you've bumbled around and failed

and come up short 

too many times to count,

and for so many different reasons,

just think about this list;

Steven Spielberg

got rejected three times from film school,

and ended up attending just a regular university.

Then, he dropped out 

to work a seven-day-a-week, 

unpaid internship in a film studio.

That's how the director of "E.T.", and

"Schindler's List" got his start working in movies.

He's said "Failure is inevitable.

Success is elusive."

Babe Ruth

struck out 1,330 times.

JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

took her seven years to write,

and was rejected by 12 publishers.

Plus, even when it was initially published,

she was given the advice to keep her day job--

as she didn't likely have a future in children's books.

Abraham Lincoln

(are you ready for this?)

lost his job as a clerk in the village store,

was defeated for state legislature,

failed in business--more than once,

was defeated for speaker,

was defeated for nomination for Congress,

when finally elected to Congress, lost the renomination,

rejected for land officer,

defeated for U.S. Senate,

defeated for nomination for Vice President,

defeated again for U.S. Senate.

Whew.

But he's like everyone's favorite US President.

Even the Kid President's.

Julia Child was 37 when she

attended Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.

She was 49 when "Mastering the Art of French Cooking:

Volume One" was published.

Colonel Sanders was 65

when he opened Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Grandma Moses didn't pick up a paintbrush

until she was in her 70's.

When she died at the age of 101,

President John F. Kennedy paid her a special tribute.

And lastly,

Princess Kate did not get married until she was 29.

And she had her first baby at 31.

We single twenty-somethings

will be forever grateful to you, Duchess.

(you know I had to sneak that one in there!)

Also, as a means of promoting optimism 

and encouragement in my own life,

I started a new blog to document the things

that randomly spring up and inspire me

(just so I don't have a chance to forget them).

Feel free to take a gander:

Fortuitous Enchantment