Maybe you have to have a screw loose to dream this big.
Tana Poppino started dreaming about competing in the National Finals Rodeo when she was only eight years old. She won a rodeo scholarship to Oklahoma Panhandle State University and qualified for the college national finals her junior and senior years. When she graduated in 1985, she got married and took a job at the Grand River Dam Authority, intending to work a few years before going pro. “When you’re young, you have big dreams,” she says. “And then reality sets in and you have to pay the bills. Two years turned into 20 years.”
By day Poppino worked at her marketing job, and in the evenings she trained with her horses. Each weekend, she and her husband, who also competed in rodeos, traveled to amateur competitions. Finally, in 2003, Poppino thought she was ready....To find out how Poppino turned her hopes into championship trophies—and to read the amazing reinvention stories of four other midlife women—pick up the February 2010 issue of MORE, now on newsstands.
To read a bonus extreme-reinvention story (she became a painter after she went blind--what?!), click here.
