21 | The Quiet Grief of "Wasted Years"

The Messy Middle Podcast · Apr 23, 2026 · 20m · transcript

In this episode, I’m talking about something that almost every woman I’ve ever worked with eventually hits: the quiet grief of “wasted years.”

It’s that heavy moment of looking back at a relationship and thinking, I lost myself in that. Sometimes it’s years, sometimes decades. And it often comes with shame, confusion, and a harsh inner narrative that says you should have known better.

But what if that whole story is built on hindsight that your past self simply didn’t have access to yet?

Let’s get into it.

In this episode, I cover:

The quiet, often unspoken grief that shows up after…