It’s day 4 of the series 31 Days of Lessons Learned from My 20’s. If you want to read all the posts in this series, you can find every post listed here. If you want to have all the posts delivered to your email inbox, subscribe here.

When I was in college I wanted to major in English. I like to write, a lot. And if I have an academic strength, writing is it.

I took a lot of English classes. But as I looked around my college classroom, deep in discussion about Hamlet and As I Lay Dying, I didn’t sound like my fellow classmates – many whom were English majors. They were much more literary sounding – the kind of people you imagine reading out loud to their date as they sit on a blanket under an oak tree.

That wasn’t me.

So I decided I wasn’t smart enough to be an English major.

Instead I majored in Early Childhood Education. Then I got a Master’s degree in Reading Education.

For 13 years I taught little kids how to read. For all but two, I strongly disliked every minute of it.

If only . . .

Words that ring in my ears regularly.

I know God’s promise that all things work together for good. I know there was a plan that He was in the middle of even then. I know that I didn’t mess-up His plan.

I know all of this in my head. But my heart still aches for English class.

When you’re 37, you’ll wish you’d have started now.

So start now.

Listen deep inside yourself to the whisper that keeps murmuring the same words over-and-over again. Don’t squelch it down so low that it eventually pretend-fades. Even if it isn’t possible or even practical, find a way to keep it alive. If only on the weekends.

Maybe for you the whisper is to write or sing or sew. Maybe it is to move far away. Maybe it’s to travel for fun or go on a mission trip. Maybe it’s to keep practicing that instrument you started playing in the fifth grade. Maybe it’s to major in that hard major.

Believe in God who puts those whispers in our hearts. Believe that He will equip you with whatever it is He is calling you to do.

You see, those whispers, they don’t go away. They just creep back up again and again and leave you saying “I wish I had started then”.

 What do you need to start now?

Photo Credit: Creative Commons: Paul Downey