DOES TALENT HAVE AN AGE?

Life Is a Journey of Self-Discovery

Life is nothing but a journey of discovering oneself.

It’s a walk with yourself, on a path that belongs to you alone. We all move forward—sometimes stumbling, sometimes sinking, running, and tiring—but always progressing.

At each milestone of this journey, we uncover another part of ourselves, tuck it into our satchel, and continue on, just like in the old tales.

With every discovery, a new gift awaits us.

“Oh, so this is who I am,” we say.

We begin to understand why we do what we do, and with that understanding, we take another step forward.

But when it comes to discovering our talents, we often hold ourselves back.

Once upon a time, someone told us who we were, and we accepted it as the truth. Few of us ever think to revisit something we once believed we couldn’t do, to try again and say, “Maybe now I can.” As a result, certain dreams remain unfulfilled, and we struggle to reclaim them for ourselves.

Because someone else excels at something, we assume they are simply better than us, and we never even attempt it. Perhaps as children, when the neighbor’s daughter sang beautifully, we chose to hum softly to ourselves instead. Then, as adults, we never looked back, never gave ourselves another chance, and in doing so, deprived ourselves of the joy of singing. Worse, we may go through life never realizing that we, too, could sing just as beautifully.

How tragic—both for us, missing out on that joy, and for the world, deprived of the beauty of our voice.

Vera Wang designed her first dress at the age of 40. Today, she is one of the most successful designers in the world. Why? Because at 40, she dared to look back and ask herself, Can I do this?—and thus continued her journey of self-discovery.

I’m sure many examples come to mind—perhaps a late-blooming artist you once heard about, a distant relative who discovered their talent for painting after retirement, or an older contestant on a singing competition who inspired millions.

Now, close your eyes and ask yourself this question:

What is it that I want to do? What would I love to be able to do?

Whatever spark ignites in your heart—chase it.

May your answer give you the courage to try.

With love,

Selin BİNAY