The Many Wonders of Being a Late Bloomer

I should be honest—I am developmentally delayed. And I am so grateful for it. Don't get me wrong, there are things that I've been doing my entire life and trying to cultivate skill-wise. (Actually, now that I think about it, maybe that's only writing.)

The rest? Definitely late. I was almost already in middle school by the time I knew how to properly tie my shoes. I was in high school until I was nineteen and in grade 13. I *still* don't know how to drive. I graduated university at twenty-nine. Despite masking my entire life, there are still things I'm learning that are acceptable vs. unacceptable in social situations. I'm growing my hair out for the first time in my life right now. There are even more embarrassing points I could make which would really hit home how much arrested development imbued in me, but I should save *some* face, shouldn't I?

There's actually a term for this, or at least the closest academic approximation of it. [Emerging Adulthood](https://nobaproject.com/modules/emerging-adulthood), a concept coined by developmental psychologist [Jeffrey Jensen Arnett](https://jeffreyarnett.com/) in a [widely-cited 2000 article in *American Psychologist*](https://www.apa.org/monitor/jun06/emerging). Arnett's idea was that the years between roughly eighteen and twenty-nine have become a distinct life stage of their own. Not quite adolescence and not quite adulthood. There's identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and a sprawling sense of possibility. Arnett called it a "roleless role," and I find this both deeply accurate and deeply comforting. I'm just still on the winding road.

Anyways, [this blog](https://brennan.day) you're reading on? I made it two months ago, in December 2025. Despite getting into Linux and starting to self-learn web development like Jekyll when I was sixteen, I have only entered the IndieWeb now. Similarly, it's only been in the past few months that I've started using microblogging platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky.

When I say that I'm grateful for being a late bloomer and taking so long to dip my toes into different things, that isn't toxic positivity. I mean it. For example, I can't imagine how detrimental it would have been for my psyche if I joined and actively used Twitter during its existence instead of bypassing it entirely. I've had time to cultivate my values and become steadfast in my identity and who I am.

I am transient and nomadic in my interests and passions for this reason. As soon as I'm competent with something, I typically find myself jumping ship onto something else. I spent a year learning analogue photography and have a few thousand dollars worth of negatives and a storage box full of 4x6 photos. I spent another couple years learning guitar and music theory and rele