The Wobbly Middle is a podcast for women rethinking their careers. Listen to our conversations with women who have forged bold new paths in their 40s and beyond - women who have stood at career crossroads, returned after careers breaks, built businesses, and finally taken their long-neglected dreams seriously.
Did you know that you can go to mermaid school in Florida? If you’re quick, that is. The courses sell out in 36 hours. Women come from all over, even NASA. Oh, what joy there is to be had in this world!
Our first guest of the new season is Rita King, one of the Legendary Sirens at the famous Weeki Wachee Springs.
As a child in the 50s, Rita’s foster parents drove her 35 miles to Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida to see the mermaid show. From that moment, she knew she was going to be a mermaid. At 17, she passed the test but had to wait until her 18th birthday before she was allowed to perform.
The Weeki Wachee mermaids perform in the natural spring alongside the fish and manatees. “If we see an alligator, we have to get out.”
Later in life, Rita worked the US Postal rural mail route (through the swamps) but always felt the magnetic pull of the water. On retirement, with her family grown, she took herself straight back to Weeki Wachee, job application in hand. She waited four years until a space opened allowing her to claim her place as one of the Legendary Sirens, performing well into her 70s.
Now Rita runs the adult mermaid training courses. When I ask what happens to the women on the course, there’s a long silence, and then:
Actually, they kinda transform. The first time they get in with the mermaid tail, it’s hard. It’s harder than they think. But they actually do transform. During the day you can see them get better. I always tell them, ‘Tomorrow you will be different in the water.’
It spoiled me for any other job.
There is a school of thought that says enjoyment is efficiency, that understanding our intrinsic motivation - the thing that gives a sense of meaning and purpose, where the effort becomes effortless and the activity itself is the reward - is the key to productivity.
Rita seems to have discovered this early. Being a mermaid “spoiled [her] for any other job.”
It’s the water, she says. It exerts a mysterious pull on her. When she’s not running the mermaid camps, she’s helping with the underwater safety during the shows or diving to clear the poison algae from the springs.
But what about the rest of us? How do we find work out our intrinsic motivation?
Rita says we have to do some soul searching. Over the summer, as the sun’s warm light releases you, think about what comes easily to you. What lights your curiosity. Catch the trade winds across your summer memories and remember what you loved as a child.
If you’re struggling, write, scribble, draw. Look at old photos. Talk. Don’t talk. Think. Get out the scissors and glue. Go back to our episode with Rebecca Newman, Pin It To Win It, about how to make an action boards. Even the act of looking for images is informative.
It’ll come. It may be hard to begin with but tomorrow you will be different in the water.
Friend of the pod
On Friday I caught up with friend of the pod, Emily Connally, at the opening of the Cherwell Collective’s Fashion House which is offering workspaces for local sustainable artists.
Some of you may remember Emily’s episode From Lab to Lifeline: When Brain and Heart Collide. She pivoted from neuroscience research at Harvard and Oxford to founding the Cherwell Collective, a grassroots network tackling food waste that started as a schoolgate food bank during the pandemic.
She has promised to come back on the pod to tell us about her latest adventures.
Until then, what a time to be alive!
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ABOUT THE PODCAST: Join recovering lawyer Patsy Day as she navigates her own midlife career crossroads in real time. The Wobbly Middle explores that moment when we recognise the restless feeling for what is - returning ambition - and begin actively questioning our direction. It’s that in-between space where we know we want change but don’t know how to move forward.
Each season, Patsy sits down with women who share their career pivot stories about leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously
In Season 4, she’s speaking to the women who changed direction in midlife to build the things that make our summers: the holidays we book, the books we read, the swimwear we brave, and the financial confidence to enjoy it.
These wise women tell us that clarity comes from doing and that readiness grows as you go. The message is don’t wait to feel ready to begin. Dip in a toe and see where it leads.
SHARE YOUR STORY: Made a left turn in your career? We’d love to hear about it - your story might just be the nudge someone else needs.
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