Yesterday I told my therapist about my research question for sociology class. He says studies have shown that depending on the field there is a certain age where you have to be discovered for you to be embraced by that industry. He mentioned age 14 or 15 for an instrument like violin, for example. The exception was writing; there are writers who were embraced by the industry well into their 40s and beyond. “That’s not to say you can’t develop a skill later in life and be exceptional at it. You just won’t be celebrated by society at large.”
Science and experience have proven we can continue to learn new skills well into old age, so it isn’t a question of whether we are able to learn a skill and become expert at it. Much like the concept of race, this age ceiling for publicly celebrating newcomers to a field is a social construct, not an unchangeable fact like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Who makes up those rules that say once you are past 15 you cannot become a celebrated concert violinist, for example? Has that always been the case in American society? Why? What is standing in the way of changing this social perception?
There is a reason I say my official occupation is Coloring Outside the Lines. I have always believed social constructs are meant to be questioned. When they are used to grossly narrow our experiences as a society I boldly call for them to be broken. Now that I am a sociology student this is the kind of thing I am being trained to deconstruct in an academic way.