Fellow oldies.. It is a pleasure to join your esteemed company. I am a Brit living in USA for the past 11 years,green card etc, and I will turn 42 in June. I quit my "real" job in February, and embarked on my dream to fly for a living. So far I have 235 hours TT and an Instrument rating. I plan on taking Commercial, Instructor and Multi checkrides within the next 2 months. I have not regretted the decision for one moment, especially when I look at the poor commuters stuck in traffic down below.
There are times when you look at the various threads on this site and get a little nervous seeing folks with 000s of hours of seemingly good experience, yet without jobs. While I am certain that many or most of them have just been plain unlucky, I am also sure that we all need to be realistic in realizing that building the required hours is but one piece of the puzzle, and that prospective employers are looking for additional "life" qualities, e.g. demonstrated teamwork, persistence, attention to detail, personability and even a sense of humour!! I think we'd all be well advised to to get so obsessed with time building that we forget to balance our lives a little. Anyway, enough waffling. We can ALL be successful at this given the required application of effort and a little dose of good fortune.
This is a great support network, and I will be happy to help anyone with questions relating to flying in the US.... or anything else for that matter.
Never give up, never surrender!!!! Keep the blue side up.