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Unexpected Changes Offer Freedom For New Path

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Feb 11, 2009 5:00 am US/Mountain

Unexpected Changes Offer Freedom For New Path

Reporting
Tom Mustin
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) ― Last month alone nearly 600,000 Americans lost their jobs. Right now the unemployment rate has reached its highest point since 1974.

A Fort Collins woman is giving people the strength to fight back from traumatic changes in their lives. Laura Lee Carter lost her job at the age of 48. Since then, she's become a poster child for beating the recession. "There is freedom in losing your job, there is freedom in changing your life," says Carter.

In 2003 after 25 years as a librarian and psychologist, Carter was unexpectedly fired. " I'd never lost a job in my entire life and here I was 48 years old. I didn't know what I was going to do", she told CBS 4's Tom Mustin.

At the time she was also going through a painful divorce. "I was single, I was losing my job. It seemed like it could be so terrible and yet this little voice said, 'maybe this will change your life.'"

Carter said that voice led her to pursue her dream of becoming a freelance writer. Along the way she also picked up a new husband. A year ago she launched a blog called Midlife Crisis Queen. "I figured I'd change my hair color, my home, my husband. I changed everything so I was the queen, " she laughed.

The blog offers "royal" advice to midlifer's who are experiencing traumatic changes in their lives. The site covers everything from job loss to midlife dating to finding your destiny.

So far the site has received more than 50 thousand hits worldwide. Many of the readers are in their 20s and 30s. "I want to tell them what I went through and it'll all turn out good, " she said. "My favorite saying is hang on it all changes."

Carter discusses those changes in her new book. "Midlife Magic." She said the book is an upbeat look at embracing change and reinventing yourself during these tough times.

The book also offers advice to people of all ages who are struggling to deal with being fired. "First of all, don't blame yourself. It's not about you", she said." It's about the economy. It's about so many things."

Carter says the anger and frustration of being fired can be sometimes be a great motivator to finding your dream job.

And Laura Lee Carter is living proof that a mid life crisis may just be an opportunity in disguise ." This is the best life I could imagine for myself," she said. " But it took losing my job to move on."

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