This Friday, I’m stepping way out of my comfort zone. I’m touring a school.

Even writing that sentence feels a little strange. Even admitting this out loud makes my tummy have butterflies.

Not because there’s anything unusual about touring a school, but because I’m 53 years old and, apparently, still perfectly capable of giving myself first-day-of-school nerves. Oh Yeah, I’m even having nightmares about what I wind up wearing.

I’m excited. I’m curious. I’m nervous. I’m probably overthinking things that haven’t even happened yet. I mean that is my normal MO on normal days as it is.

For a lot of us Gen X women, this stage of life was supposed to look a little different. By now, weren’t we supposed to have it all figured out?

We were supposed to know exactly who we were, what we wanted, what we were doing, and where the rest of our lives were headed.

Apparently reality took a look and said, “hahahaha that’s adorable. Try again.”

Because what I’m discovering is that your 50s can be less about having all the answers and more about finally being willing to ask some different questions.

What do I actually want now?

What sounds exciting to me?

What have I spent years saying “maybe someday” about?

And maybe the biggest one:

What happens if I stop assuming it’s too late?

For me, one of those answers has been aesthetics.

Beauty and skincare have been part of my world for a long time, and somewhere along the way I started thinking about what it would look like to take that interest further. Not just selling products or talking about skincare online, but actually learning more, getting trained, and possibly turning it into another part of what I do.

So Friday I’m going to walk into a school and see how it feels.

I don’t have to know the entire outcome before I take the next step.

And maybe that’s something I’m finally learning.

We spend much of our lives thinking we need certainty before we can make a move. We want guarantees. We want to know we’ll be good at something. We want to know we aren’t going to look ridiculous starting over at an age when society seems to think women should be quietly settling into whatever life they have already built. Apparently they wren’t prepared for Genx because here we are.

I learned that most of the time you don’t get certainty. You may get curiosity. Sometimes you may even get a little spark that keeps coming back no matter how many times you try to ignore it.

And sometimes that’s all you need.

I think Gen X women are particularly good at reinventing ourselves, even if we don’t always give ourselves credit for it.

We grew up having to figure things out as we went along. We adapted to a world that changed dramatically around us. We raised our families, built careers, changed careers, survived things we never expected, and kept moving.

So why exactly would we suddenly become incapable of beginning again at 50?

We aren’t.

And beginning again doesn’t mean everything before it was wrong. It doesn’t erase the careers we had, the families we raised, the businesses we built, or the lessons we learned.

It simply means there may still be more.

More to learn.

More to try.

More to become.

Friday may end with me completely in love with this school.

It may raise a hundred more questions.

It may change my plans.

I honestly don’t know yet.

And for once, I’m trying to be okay with that.

Because maybe the next chapter doesn’t begin when you have everything figured out.

Maybe it begins when you finally decide to turn the page.