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Your last day of work was Friday. You wake up Saturday morning and you are retired, just another retiree, a 65 year old senior citizen perhaps and some people instantly perceive you as low income as well, just because you are retired.
But what is really different? You are still you, your personality has not changed, your habits have not changed, what you like or dislike hasn’t changed. You still like some people and others not so much.
How money gets into your bank account each month has changed, but you knew that was coming for the last forty years.
I don’t see retirement as slamming one door and opening a new one. Life is more like a moving walkway in my view.
There is no reason to view retirement with apprehension. Your work may have been enjoyable as was mine, a certain status may have been part of working, but that certainly is not all you were. Remember when someone asked, “what do you do?” You may have been proud to answer, or maybe apprehensive you would be insulted or even ashamed- if you were the dog catcher.
Now if that question is asked you proudly say, “I’m retired,” and you know that is an accomplishment most people strive for – and you made it.
Perhaps you are a spouse, a parent, a grandparent, a friend. You don’t leave that behind just because you retire. It’s like relocating after retirement. You sell your home of many decades, where you raised your family. The old place contains so many good memories. No it doesn’t. Those good memories will always be with you and each family member no matter where you are.
Besides, retirement is a time to add new memories. If you are blessed with grandchildren, being retired is the greatest time. I’ve been to more sporting events, did more babysitting, made more trips here and there, attended more plays and concerts than I can count, but they added to my memory collection. And now we are visiting colleges and I’m collecting hats – just another old geezer with a baseball cap not worn backward.
Being retired means you can do anything you want any day of the week.
I have a fascination with old graveyards I walk around reading headstones looking for the oldest dates I can find. Where I live there are many in the 1700s and even a few the late 1600s and lots around the time of the Civil War. Some are grand monuments and others warn pieces of sandstone standing askew. They all have one thing in common. There is nobody around who knows or cares who they were.
After a few months leaving your job, you too will fade away from the workplace. Colleagues you may have considered friends will prove to be otherwise. Your name will forgotten as the workforce changes.
That’s nothing to be maudlin over. Your job was never who you were.
Ask your spouse or your children or a best friend who you are. The walkway is still moving.
Thank you Richard for this timely article. I am retiring at the end of this year.
That’s great LH! You will love it!
It’s the best “job” I’ve ever had!
👍
I was a part of so many important decisions and activities by Federal agencies and by big corporations when I was moving up the career ladder. As a retiree, and 30-40 years later, I now look back on most of those things and the world has passed them all by – the energetic contests of wills and the perceived importance of the activities have faded into the shadows. The world eventually made most of them irrelevant. It is a little like Ozymandias for some people I know – their empire disappeared into the sand. And it is a little like King Lear for others – the day they left their important position, they effectively disappeared as confidants and resources, too.
I’ve learned life is a little like someone walking across a bunch of ice floes in warming weather, who needs to decide which one is melting fastest, and when to jump from the one you are on to another one that looks better and is melting more slowly, in order to get to the safetly of shore.
Actually, I’m still friends with people I met through a job from early 1990s through 2008. And one of my grandfathers remained close friends with people he met through his professional life for the twenty years he lived post-retirement. Just saying this to make the point that leaving work does not inevitably mean leaving people behind. But at my current job, sad to say I have not bonded with people in a way that reaches outside work. One consideration not retiring is that I really enjoy the relationships, even if they are only 9 to 5 in a transactional setting.
I retired 4 years ago from my job as a Medical Oncologist. When I introduce myself to someone, do I say I “am” a physician or I “was” a physician? BTW, I still have my medical license 😜
A retired physician.
I think you will always be a physician employed or not.
Excellent article. I love your closing thought “The walkway is still moving.”
Agree this is a moving walkway, just watch out for those bumps and pot holes!
Great perspective on retirement! While I enjoyed my job, I am thankful more for the financial security for retirement it provided.
Well said! I retired at 57 and never looked back. My only regret is not retiring sooner.
“I have a fascination with old graveyards.”
Two years ago while walking to the “downtown” for a celebration of our town’s tricentennial I spotted a cemetery buried in overgrowth at the side of the road. I had not noticed it driving past the previous six years. After some research to determine the property owner (in New England many cemeteries are old family plots on private land) I spent several days making it presentable. Now it only takes a couple of hours every other month to keep in tip top shape. This has become a passion project.
The most prestigious permanent resident is Captain John Ford who served in the Revolutionary War. The claim to fame of our little town which currently has a population of about 5K is that we had four generals who participated in the revolution.
Nice story David. It’s very good if you to have taken this on. We are planning our annual Christmas trip to visit several
cemeteries in the Philadelphia region putting wreaths in our family grave sites. It’s one of my favorite days of eh year.
That’s very kind of you. There are so many overgrown and forgotten. I was once hiking in Nickerson State Park in Brewster, Ma and as I looked up a hill I saw the tip of an American flag. I hiked up to see more.
There was a small plaque that read here lies a Revolutionary War soldier and the flag. In the middle of the woods probably unnoticed most of the time.
We have been to Nickerson when we were biking the rail trail. I highly recommend the rail trail for any bikers out there. If you want to bike at a rather fast pace I recommend getting out early and biking from the south where the population is denser to the north where it is less populated.
I’m also proud to say I’m retired! I have so many things going on these days between the volunteer activities, grandchildren, travel with my wife and family, attending a college course ( just for fun and learning) working out and hobbies, that I have a tough time arranging a ROMEO lunch or breakfast with my friends. Great article and perspective. I can say it is very accurate!
My job has been something of a hellhole the last few years. I’ve said at various points that I aspire “to be forgotten” (as in “what was the name of that professor who used to…?”) and NOT to be needed. My colleagues think I am kidding. I absolutely am not. I am ready to move onto the next phase, where my value is in what I mean to my friends and family.
Loved this. Definitely making lots of new memories with the grandchildren. Spouse loves being able to walk down to get older one from school and we both take a nap with the younger one on Fridays. Precious times. Chris
“Your job was never who you were.”
Couldn’t agree more. My job wasn’t always the same – there was a trying couple of years when I was product manager instead of a techie – and while I enjoyed it for the first 25 years I was glad to leave at 30. However, I think I may have been an exception.
My wife retired last January and learned all of the things you have mentioned the hard way. Hopefully when I retire at the end of next month I will learn from and remember your article. Thanks, Dick
The walkway indeed is moving, though it seems faster these days. Nice post Richard.
Well said, retirement is an accomplishment. And, yes sometimes I’m bored but there are also many moments of serendipity that would have never have happened otherwise.
don’t be afraid to embrace the change.
There are days, especially after weekends that I look forward to being bored.