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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#168 From Nun to Fortune 500 Founder: How One Woman Overcame Her Fear of Reinvention (Ellen Snee)
#167: Reinventing After 50 to Recover Your Life’s Passion (Jennifer Lewis McKay)
#166: How to Reinvent Your Relationship to Your Children’s Education (Caitlin Meister)
#165: When Job Loss Leads to Understanding Your Own Story (Kate Eckman)
#164: Reinventing Your Sleep During Menopause: Solutions! (Hasti Nazem)
#163: Investing Your Life’s Savings in Your Career Reinvention (Janet Gurwitch)
#162 When a Pandemic Trashes Your Business (Paula Floyd)
#161 When a Literal Explosion Forces You to Rethink Your Professional Identity (Christine Bader)
#160 Science as a Platform for Reinvention (Ariel Garten)
#159: When Career Transformation Leads to Personal Reinvention (Kristine Deer)
#158 Reinventing When Life Makes You a Double Caregiver (Laurie James)
#157 Running Her Side Hustle on One Hour a Day (Nicole Malcolm-Manyara)
#155 Growth is in the Struggle (Jennifer Pate)
#154 Don’t Think of it as a Reinvention, But as a Next Step (Marlene Wallach)
#153 Pay Attention to Your Intuition (Sandy Weiner)
#152 How a City Inspired a Reinvention (Debra Shriver)
#151 When Your Parents Expected a Doctor But You Do Everything Else (Catherine Balsam-Schwaber)
#150 What I’ve Learned from 150 Reinvention Interviews + Celebrating 100,000 Downloads
#149 From PR to Flight Attendant to Literary Publicist (Lynda Bouchard)
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