Diane Julian doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t love music. She began writing songs in her 20′s and dreams of writing and singing professionally became her passion. But like a lot of us, her life took another direction when she fell in love, married and started a family. Although her music was put on the back burner, it was never forgotten as she dedicated her time to raising her children. When tragedy struck a few years ago and she lost her husband to a sudden illness, Diane also saw it as a wake-up call. She realized no one’s time was unlimited and found her way back to her music. Calling on the assistance of a friend, she began writing again and in March of 2011 she released her first CD, “Pieces of me”, available on iTunes and CD Baby. We were privileged to attend her official CD launch party and the thrill of watching someone go full force after their goals at this stage of their life, is nothing less than inspiring.
Midlife Road Trip salutes Diane Julian and others like her, who know it’s never too late to pursue your dreams, so we sat down with her to find out how she did it.
Midlife Road Trip: How and what did you change to make this all possible?
Diane: What I changed in my life was my mind– to follow my dream. I’ve always had a love of music; it’s something that has always been a part of me. I felt that someday I could do something with my songs. As we all know, life goes in different directions, and my music fell to the side. I married and had two beautiful children. Suddenly, I lost my husband to bacterial meningitis at the age of 50. As traumatic as it was, I realized that life is so short and none of us know how long we will be here. So I decided to pursue my music again. I started to write songs; looking back, it was very good therapy. I teamed up with my good friend Eric DiBerardo at EDB Studios and he liked my style, so we started to work on my first CD.
Midlife Road Trip: What made you decide to do it at this stage in your life?
Diane: By the sudden loss of my husband, I realized that life is just too short and you truly have to follow your passion no matter how old you are. Besides my children, music makes me happy and I’ve always believed I could touch a lot of people through my songs. So once I decided to pursue this there was no turning back. Four years later, the dream has become a reality!
Midlife Road Trip: What challenges have you encountered and how have you overcome them?
Diane: I think the only challenge would be confidence in myself to do this. You can say to yourself “why should I be doing this at my age?” When I answered that question, it was “why not, go for it!” It’s never too late to follow your dreams.
Midlife Road Trip: What have you accomplished? Or what do you hope to accomplish?
Diane: Well, I’ve accomplished this: I didn’t let fear get in the way of wanting to follow my dream. I hope by doing this it encourages others to do the same. I don’t want to ever regret not going forward with this dream of mine. I’m glad that I did and I hope that my songs touch people’s hearts.
Midlife Road Trip: What would you tell others looking to re-invent themselves?
Diane: Go for it! Everybody has a passion for something.
Midlife Road Trip: We feel it’s important to have goals. What’s on your bucket list?
Diane: To meet Neil Diamond and Ellen Degeneres! Neil has been my inspiration and the reason I fell in love with music to begin with. As for Ellen, I love everything about her– everything about her is good and pure!
We wish you all the best Diane.
Check out her CD “Pieces of Me” on CD Baby or iTunes
Diane, I believe you will meet Neil and Ellen and they are going to love your music! Neil will want to record it too!