I meet Reny Morsch in her tutor’s office at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in central London, where she is studying to become a costume maker¹ for film and theatre. She is dressed in black, with her blonde hair dip-dyed blue, and we are surrounded by overflowing² boxes of accessories, bracelets³ and earrings⁴: one is labelled “sparkly bits”, another “bits and bobs”.

在位于伦敦市中心的皇家戏剧学院(Royal Academy of Dramatic Art)，我见到了雷尼?莫尔希(Reny Morsch)，她在这里学习电影和戏剧服装制作。见面地点在她导师的办公室，她穿着一身黑，金发染成了蓝色。我们站在一大堆箱子中间，箱子里堆满了饰品、手镯和耳环。有个箱子上的标签写着“亮晶晶的小玩意”，另一个上面贴着“零零碎碎”。

Ms Morsch is one of five people the Financial Times is following over a year as they make a mid-life career switch.

英国《金融时报》对5位中年转行者进行了为期一年的追踪，莫尔希便是其中一位。

This glittery, organised chaos⁵ is a very different work environment to the financial world where Ms Morsch worked for more than 30 years. When she originally embarked⁶ on a banking⁷ career, it was a “solid profession?.?.?.?that’s what my parents thought.” First, she worked in Frankfurt as a forex trader and then for Deutsche B?rse in London.

这个闪闪发光、乱中有序的工作环境与莫尔希工作了30多年的金融界截然不同。当她最初步入银行业时，这是一个“稳定的职业……我父母就希望这个。”她一开始是在法兰克福担任外汇交易员，后来就职于德意志交易所(Deutsche B?rse)，在伦敦工作。

Her postgraduate⁸ course at Rada finishes in the summer and Ms Morsch hopes it will equip her with the skills to switch to the creative industries. It is a big leap from the relative security of regular salaries and bonuses to freelance work and reduced earnings⁹. Moreover, at 51, she will be competing with younger peers for paid gigs.

莫尔希在皇家戏剧学院的研究生课程将于今年夏季结束，她希望从中掌握投身创意行业所需的技能。这是一次重大飞跃，她从有固定收入和奖金、相对安稳的职业，转向了薪资较少的自由职业。更重要的是，她将以51岁之龄与年轻同行们竞争有偿工作。

While the risks are clear — and Ms Morsch has considered them all, at length — she is making a transition to a creative career that those trapped at their desks may envy.

尽管风险显而易见，莫尔希也全面考虑了上述所有问题，但她还是选择转行做创意工作——一个可能会让那些困在办公桌前的人羡慕不已的职业。

The switch has turned costume-making, something she describes as once a “passionate¹⁰ hobby”, into a career. And it means she no longer suffers that common mid-life paralysis¹¹ of indecision over which career path to take next.

莫尔希说服装制作曾是她的一个“充满激情的爱好”，而转行将把她的爱好变成一份职业。而且这意味着她再也不会陷入常见的中年彷徨：不知道接下来该选择哪条职业道路。