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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#100: Celebrating 100 episodes and reinventions
#99: Bonnie Chan Woo (A more purposeful way of shopping)
#98: Cherie Buziak (Reinventing for motherhood)
#97: Diane Bruno (From speech writing to funeral directing)
#96: Shai Littlejohn (From lawyer, to musician, and back)
#95: Marla Ginsburg (Reinventing after losing everything)
#94: Ariane Daguin (Reinventing because your brother got the family biz)
#93: Tanya Ezekiel (From Wall Street to Uber coach)
#92: Suzanne Steinbaum (Rethinking the way doctors deliver medical care)
#91: Julie Foucht (My history was just programming)
#90: Meg Jordan (Everything is a learning opportunity)
#89: Dr. Cecilia Dintino and Hannah Murray Starobin (How to reinvent during a pandemic)
#88: Amy Giddon (Helping others connect and belong)
#87: Terri Bryant (When a disability forces you to reinvent)
#86: Deborah Jackson (In this new world, where are the opportunities?)
#85: Barbara Paldus (Reinventing from science to beauty)
#84: Joan Lunden (How to pivot into your next life)
#83: Dana Rubin (Turning intellectual curiosity and research into $$)
#82: Suzanne Frank (3 simple steps to reinventing your health)
#81: Chip Conley (Reinvent yourself by mak[ing] age your ally)
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