Hi, I'm Ann - and I believe your dreams are still waiting for you.

The Short Version: I'm 61, a researcher at Duke studying how people transform life's setbacks into authentic growth - from adolescents navigating school challenges to adults wondering if it's too late to start over. And I'm finally brave enough to sing my songs in public. If you think it's too late to be who you really are, we should probably talk.

The Real Story: Here's what I've learned about transformation: it rarely looks like what we expect.

At 17, I was a high school dropout with a Langston Hughes poster on my wall that read "Hold fast to dreams." I was drowning in depression, barely surviving, and felt like what Hughes called "a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." The irony? Even while I was failing every class, I was reading voraciously. I hated school, but I loved learning.

Fast forward through decades of figuring it out - therapy, night classes, community college, eventually a master's degree, then a PhD from Duke. Today I'm a researcher who studies how people transform their biggest struggles into their most authentic selves. And I'm still that person who believes dreams don't have expiration dates.

Here's what makes me different: At its core, my work helps people remember that they are love, and that everything else is just life getting in the way of that truth. I don't just research resilience - I'm living it in real time. I write songs about the complex realities of human experience (like navigating relationships with adult children), I'm learning to wear clothes that make me feel fabulous instead of invisible, and I'm finally stepping onto stages to sing the songs I've been writing in secret for years.

My work grew from a simple question: What if the people society labels as "dropouts" or "failures" are actually the ones who understand transformation best? My research with hundreds of people facing adversity revealed something beautiful: our deepest values and dreams persist even through our darkest moments. They don't disappear - they wait.

That's why I created the Transformational Resilience method, based on extensive interviews with people who transformed their biggest setbacks into authentic growth. It's not about bouncing back or getting over things. It's about the brave, slow work of braiding beauty from broken threads. Of honoring what happened to you while refusing to let it define what's possible for you.

The truth is: I'm still figuring it out, just like you. The difference is I've learned to do it with curiosity instead of shame, with research-backed tools instead of pure willpower, and with songs that help me process what words alone cannot capture.

If you're here, you probably know what it feels like to:

• Have dreams you've never told anyone about

• Wonder if it's too late to be authentic

• Feel like you've lost touch with who you really are

• Carry beautiful dreams alongside deep wounds

Welcome. You're in exactly the right place. Let's figure out how to honor all of who you are - the broken parts, the beautiful dreams, and everything in between.

P.S. Yes, I have a PhD and a GED. I left school during 10th grade after being suspended three times for truancy and held back a grade - I had only 6¾ credits when I needed 7 to become a junior. But through it all, I always sang - privately at first, too afraid to share my voice. In my 20s, I finally started singing publicly, took lessons, joined a vocal jazz group and several cover bands. But I only started writing my own songs recently. Now I'm learning to sing my research, my stories, my truth. If that's not proof that it's never too late to become who you're meant to be - whether it's getting an education, finding your voice, or writing your first song - I don't know what is.