For nearly thirty years, Chris Donovan built a life that looked solid from the outside. 

By day, he worked for a steady paycheck as a telephone repairman. But alongside that life ran another one—quieter, mostly hidden. Since childhood, Chris was always doodling. And not just any doodles. He drew shoes.  

“I was staring at shoes all the time,” he says.  

The problem was that becoming a shoe designer had always felt impossible. “ I didn’t even know how you’d begin.” The idea felt too daunting, too far out of reach—so he kept it on the side.  

That changed after a frightening health scare and an unexpected wake-up call that forced him to confront a hard truth: the life he thought was “safe” was slowly suffocating him. 

In this episode of Young at Heart, Chris reflects on what it means to stop postponing the parts of yourself that matter most—and what it takes to pursue a calling without permission or precedent. 

Young at Heart brings you stories of people navigating life’s transitions—stories that invite you to imagine what’s next.  

For Chris, becoming a shoe designer meant finally choosing the life he’d been sketching out all along.