Soon my payroll pay status will be, “retired”. For the first time in about 55 years, (paper route at age 11) my income will not be dependent upon me putting in my time. Instead it will derived from having already put in my time. It has been an interesting ride but it is time to get off and let someone else have a turn.
I have learned a ton from my past jobs. Those experiences are part of what has made me, me. They are part of my identity. As I face this new beginning, I am not starting from scratch. I am standing on a huge pile of ….., well, let us call it “experience”. Where I have been will influence where I am going and who I am about to be. However where I am going is yet to be fully defined. The question is not who I was, the question is, who I should be now.
A retired friend told me what he misses from his working days is the challenge of solving problems. I have taken that to heart. On a related note, almost everyone suggests keeping mentally active. I think being mentally active is literally the definition of being alive. So yes, it is my hope that my retired future includes having brain activity. I am looking for a level of brain activity somewhere between calmly functional and challenging, I guess.
Another retired friend confided in me that as a retiree, other retired people care very little what you used to do for a living. Everyone is up for a good story but that thing that happened on your job ten years ago generally does not make for a good story. His point was you need to have an active retirement so your stories are relevant today. Otherwise you will likely be boring. I figure boring is not the worst thing I could be, however, I will strive to have new experiences to mitigate my boringness.
“Retired” is an adjective meaning “having left one’s job and ceased to work. In other words, I used to work for a living but soon, I no longer will. The retired part of how we think of ourselves, our identity, is about the past, not the present or the future. I plan to periodically reminisce about past glories. However, I hope not to live in the past. For better or worse my plan is to live in the present with an eye to the future. The past is past.
So all of the above begs the question, who should I be once my pay status at the State of Minnesota = retired. I suspect you will not be surprised by my plan. I want to report out to you what I see when I look closely at various topics. Blogging will be a part of that. Who knows what other forms of communication at which I will take a stab. At least for a while, I plan on continuing my communications coursework at the University of Minnesota. My goal is to take it seriously and improve my communications competence.
We want to periodically do some traveling. We want to stay engaged with family, friends and our community. Plays, concerts, events, games, and the like will, I hope, continue to be part of our lives. There is a fountain in my back yard that needs to be listened to while I sit on the deck reading. With any luck I will tackle cleaning out and remodeling the basement.
Someday I would love to have enough views produce some income so I could legitimately call myself a professional writer. Note that my standard for being a professional is very low, a couple bucks would be enough. I am already enjoying the satisfaction of others taking my writing seriously. That is very nice.
The number one thing I hope for my future is that I am able to live in the present. I cannot do anything about the past. I have profound faith the future will take care of itself. I am certain life will throw some challenges my way. My lifetime of knowledge and experience is the best I can do to handle those challenges should they come. I do not want worry to define me any more than I want regret to do so.
The answer to who I intend to be now is a person who is actively living my day to day life as best I can. I enjoy learning new things so I want to continue to do that. I like researching and thinking deeply about topics and I hope to continue to do that. I need to work on my interpersonal interactions. I can be a bit of a hermit, so I hope to work on that. If I start telling you the same stories about my past over and over again please do me the courtesy of gently reminding me I need some new experiences.
Mister Rogers was maybe the nicest and maybe wisest person who ever lived. He had the following advice:
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”
“We don’t always succeed in what we try, certainly by the world’s standards, but I think you’ll find it’s the willingness to keep trying that matters most.”
I think I will still be me. It is just time to get off one ride and onto another.
What we perceive often depends on how close we look.
Scaleandperception.com