Enjoy the scenic route

When I was in my teens, at that pivotal point when everyone asks you what you want to ‘do’ and what you are going to ‘be’, I saw life as a conveyor belt. If I passed certain landmarks on this conveyor belt by a fixed deadline – getting grade As at school, getting into a good university, doing a master’s, getting a good job and getting promoted fast – then I’d arrive at a destination called ‘success’ at around the age of 30.

But, as I got older and life got more convoluted, I could feel myself slipping off the conveyor belt. I tried to grip on with my fingernails but, when I had a child and got postnatal depression, I couldn’t hold on