Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Survey

  • If you are still working, what are you thinking about retirement? Do you have a solid plan you’re happy with? Does not apply anymore. But…when I was working and before I retired at the end of 2003, I didn’t really have a clue as to what it all meant. Here’s what I wrote in my Journal on the first day of 2004, “I just realized that I am now unemployed. (I really do understand that I am actually “retired”, and not unemployed, whatever that means.) Now what will happen? My mind is going 60 miles an hour as I try to understand the significance of that.” So much for planning. The only constant in my mind was the fact that I wanted to stop doing the work I was doing. There was no joy in it anymore. And at that age, there weren’t a lot of other choices to make. I had been happiest, long ago, when I was working in the field; building things. Or had I just imagined that? It didn’t make any difference; my body was not ready for me to return to construction work on a regular basis and so retirement was the only option. Oops! Scratch that. I did have a ‘plan’ to do consulting work for the corporation I was leaving. Nothing ever came of it, though I did some small amount of consulting for the local school district. More frustration than I wanted for only $25 an hour and I gladly left it.
  • If you are retired, how is it going? Do you have enough to fill your time? Are you ever at a loss for something to do? How is it going? Hmm? It is going just fine. Never bored; just frustrated that there really aren’t enough hours to do all of the things I would like to do. I know; you’ve heard that before. But it is true. We began by volunteering and joining civic groups. Ones we had an affinity for. Friends of the Library and the Food Pantry. Neither of us are extroverts, so we had to push ourselves a little to get involved. After that it’s easy. And volunteer work is perfect. Don’t feel like working today? Don’t. You’re a volunteer and sometimes it happens. Someone, another volunteer, will take your place. The world won’t end. We took art classes and will take some more when they become available. Hobbies become important again and start to feel like mini-careers. Careers without a time clock.
  • How do you feel about saying you’re retired when asked what you do? I feel proud. Silly me.
  • Did or do you have trouble identifying yourself – who you are within yourself - when you can no longer say you are a doctor, an engineer, a teacher, etc.? Sure. At first, but it didn’t last long. And now, when people ask me what I used to do, I’m sometimes at a loss for words. Do they want to know that I was a carpenter for 25+ years? Or a construction estimator? And I was an IT guy for the same construction company. An instructor for their Strategic Development group? Superintendent, foreman, project manager, programmer? And once a dishwasher in fancy Chinese restaurant! I’m all of those things and none of them…now.
  • How has the transition gone for you from decades of full-time work, a place to go every morning, to not having that obligation? I love it! The freedom is incredible! And so the loss of ‘corporate obligations’ is very noticeable; my personal obligations are minor and flexible where the corporate ones were oppressive.
  • If you’ve been retired for some years, have you made any major changes in how you spend your days? If so, why and how? I’m in my 4th year of retirement and I see changes all of the time. Nothing major yet, but I’m welcoming of them all. I think that’s important and I preach about it constantly. Change is good! I’ve met far too many elders that hang on to the past and they are not happy!
  • Retired, do you feel less involved with the world, your community, the culture at large - or more so? Oh, I’m involved all right. But only at the community level. I have to use my blogging and reading to keep up with the world at large. And that’s not always enough. In my dream world; the one where I have won $60 million in the lottery, we have a condo in most major cities and hideaways in the most desolate of places. A cabin somewhere in Mono County and a loft apartment in San Francisco. But in real life, I think it’s too easy to become content with where and who you are. And you need to be on guard…keep changing!
  • Are you happy in your retirement? What’s good and what’s not good about it? I can’t even imagine not being retired. It’s who I am. I remember my previous life with some affection. But I don’t want to relive it. So I simply write about it and that’s enough for me. What’s good about retirement? Just about everything. And what’s not good about it? It’s the inevitable worries about money and health. Inextricably linked. This becomes something that you have to spend a lot of time giving yourself pep talks about. There are days when I feel pessimistic; the stock market collapses, health insurance premiums go up and I end up with a bad case of piriformis syndrome. Yikes! So attitude matters the most. You can’t change what is going to happen; your body will eventually fail and with any luck there will be just enough money left at the end…for a party.

That’s the end of the questions and the end of the answers. For now.

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