Ann's Open Road

  • INTERVIEWED BY:

    Next Generation Roadtrip

ANN POWERS

Rock Journalist/Senior Curator
Experience Music Project

“If you don't learn who you are first, you'll just be like everyone else.”

INTERESTS:

Journalism Music

THEMES DISCUSSED:

Determination Exploration Planning Values Confidence Experience Failure Choices Money & Financial Security Dedication Individualism Opportunity Negativity Goals Societal Pressures Fulfillment Talent

FOUNDATION:

Being Creative

BIOGRAPHY:

  • Believed in the Freudian concept that whatever fulfills you at age five will be what you love your whole life.
  • She felt nerdy, like an outsider as a child, so she retreated into reading and writing.
  • Was willing to go into "dedicated poverty"-eating only ramen, wearing second-hand clothing-to pursue her dream of writing.
  • Parents thought she should get a teaching license as a fallback, but she was determined, didn't want to play it safe.
  • Says in the writing profession, or any profession, you have to get used to rejection and failure.
  • When you get the "post-breakup" feeling of, "I'll never work again," just keep going, know you'll find something new.
  • Says when you're young, you should be working on who you are as a person; leave your career to your thirties.
  • Don't feel the pressure to immediately do something huge or work somewhere prestigious; develop your own ideas first.

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