50 Plus and Fantastic: Pursuing my Writing Career at Midlife [My Story]

I lost my health and my job in the middle of a global pandemic, only to find the one thing I’d forgotten since childhood: my voice. 

My life forever changed when I lost my spleen in 2020. I was 48. Sudden pain that felt clear out of left field, to an MRI revealing a mass, to the splenectomy that resolved a rare benign tumor condition, everything I knew to be normal got completely turned upside down. This is all without factoring in the onset of COVID.

Displaced from work as a newly immunocompromised person meant living in isolation for almost two years. Living without a spleen meant I was highly susceptible to infections, and the pandemic's uncertainties posed a more serious threat to my health. No job. Isolation. Uncertainties.

Then I found Vocal Media, an online platform for writers. I was scrolling through Google, looking for something to do, something to pass my time with, something to make me feel relevant, even comforted during very lonely times.

I signed up straightaway, recalling how much I enjoyed writing as a child. I remembered my love of short stories, especially my love of poetry. I started writing poems and submitting them, and with time, I began entering Vocal Media challenges. While still a novice, the love of the written word kept me motivated, determined, and inspired during one of the most difficult transitional periods of my life.

In 2021, I expanded my horizons, joining Medium. I found success early on with a self-published post about the British language and how many Americans don't understand particular words and phrases. As a dual citizen, I knew I had some keen insight that others might appreciate. Without any knowledge of SEO, tags, topics, editing, and so on, I earned over $1000 with what I now refer to as my breakout Medium post.

At this time, I was approaching 50, and while many worldly things scared me or felt open-ended for my circumstances, one thing was crystal clear: I knew I had to keep writing!

And so I did...

When life handed me more alone time than I bargained for, I began really dissecting my life. I revisited my childhood, the dreamer in me, the creator, the artist- the girl I somehow forgot when adulthood and parental responsibilities took over. I realized that despite the inconveniences and setbacks I had been experiencing, this was also the most opportune time for me to "wipe the slate clean."

Turning 50 wasn't as daunting as I previously thought it would be. I didn't suddenly feel old, over the hill, irrelevant, disregarded, or without a purpose. In fact, I felt the opposite. I knew that I had entered a new timeline, allowing me to rebirth myself. Would I have felt differently if I hadn't faced a health scare and had major surgery amid COVID? Perhaps. And maybe that is the point entirely. I was afforded a new outlook, a fresh start, a chance to rediscover myself and do something with it.

Flashforward to 2026: I am 54. I have been writing online for six years. I have discovered that my life purpose entails writing to uplift others, to help others through personal experience with an artful, empathetic eye. 

50 plus is not about an age; it's an era, my era of the inner child reconnecting with a wiser sense of self. We laugh together. We cry. We share adventures. And these adventures inspire the writer in me to keep putting words to print. It's a fantastic time and a journey I will continue.

I was afforded a new outlook, a fresh start, a chance to rediscover myself and do something with it.

Turning 50 was a rebirth, but the 'new me' was about to be tested in a way I never saw coming. Stay tuned for the next chapter of this journey...