When Ann Dowsett Johnston attended her son’s graduation from Smith College she felt a “deep pang” that she says sounded like, “I will die and never have done this.” With her son’s encouragement, Johnston applied to Smith and moved into the student dorm with 25-year olds the next year. “I had broken my ankle and was in a wheelchair,” she says. “I was as old as many parents or grandparents. It was a phenomenal experience.” After graduating Johnston, a Canadian, who had been a journalist, then vice-principal of McGill University, launched her career as a psychotherapist at age 67 dealing with women in transition--”to post-retirement, wrestling with substance abuse or career disappointment”. When she found she missed writing, she dug into a topic she knew well: alcohol addiction (she is now 13 years sober). In 2013, she wrote the best-selling book, “Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol.” Today she runs memoir-writing workshops (“Writing Your Recovery”) in which she encourages women to tell their own stories of triumph over grief, substance, or burnout. “We have book proposals in the alumni group before international agents now,...articles in major magazines... pieces submitted to contests,” she says. “My approach to life is that we live in chapters. When friends are retiring, mine is fresh and inspirational. It’s very new. I plan to work until I’m eighty to pay off my student debt!”
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#227 How to Rethink Your Attitude Towards a Side Hustle When You’re Over 40 (Aliza Freud)
#226 How to Hire a Virtual Assistant and Reimagine Time For You (Kristy Yoder)
#225 Her Reinvention Took Her from NASA to Podcasting (Izolda Trakhtenberg)
#224 When Healing from Your Childhood Trauma Leads to Radical Self-Awareness (Poonam Bhuchar)
#223 How to Reinvent Yourself as a Writer – and Actually Make Money! (Rebecca Weber)
#222 When Your Reinvention Takes You From Entrepreneurship to the Corporate World (Barbara Viteri)
#221: World Menopause Day: A Special Conversation with Michelle Jacobs (Co-Founder, Womanness)
#220 Reinventing After Reaching the Top of the Mountain (Shelley Paxton)
#219 90% of Entrepreneurs Fail: Why You Should Reinvent Through a Franchise (Kim Daly)
#217 Reinventing from a Stable Career to Fill a Need Gap (Sharon Linder)
#216 From Stay-at-Home Mom to Addiction Recovery Maven (Felicia Montiforte Kleinpeter)
#215 Her Health Crisis Led her to Start a Nonprofit at 27 (Donna Cryer)
#214 When Covid Forces You to Pivot – and You Thrive (Sarah LaFleur)
#213 Reinventing How Women 50+ Are Seen in the Fashion Industry (Stephanie O’Dell)
#212 She Wrote the Guidebook for Midlife Reinvention (Joanne Lipman)
#211 The Secret to a Successful Reinvention (Katie Fogarty)
#210 What to Do When You’re Bored With Your Job (Shilpa Kulshrestha)
#209: He Decided to Start a New Business – Every Year! (Sean Castrina)
#208 Taking Her Reinvention Story to the Stage (LeeAnn Marie Webster)
#208 Reinventing Your Relationship to Uncertainty (Jill Griffin)
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