We are born into this world, nurtured and loved until we reach the age of adolescence. Then it's up to each of us to move on. As we age, we shed beliefs, ideas and ideals that fail when faced with an overly complex experience.
The way his parents loved her, messed up large parts of her life. She went around trying to recreate that love, without ever knowing that that was what she was trying to recreate. Onetime she read an empowering article that described how we like to mimic the love we grew up on. movies and stuff. She knew she wasn't stupid enough to do that, but she didn't know what she didn't know. She didn't know that she was chasing after her parents.
By chasing after them she pushed them away. Because she kept getting into these relationships with people who would always ultimately remind her of the parents. And then she'd become unable to stand either the partner or the parents.
In an ever-changing world, we seek grounding. We seek those things that allow our minds to experince a deeper reality.
She thought it was too late by the time she found out by 42. That what she wanted after all had nothing to do with the career or traveling or figuring out how to look younger. She thought it was too late, and that is what effectively made it too late.