It’s been just a year since I turned in my company car and laptop for lowered blood pressure and seven-day weekends.
My former job used to be fun, exciting, rewarding and all the things that make it worth getting up in the morning. However, a few years ago it stopped being fun and became 24/7 stress. Kissing that good-bye has been exhilarating, amazing, crazy, surprising, healthy, wonderful, and liberating.
What I miss:
Certain colleagues and customers
Sales bonuses
Not having to pay for gas (company car)
Visiting certain charming, idyllic campuses
The caliber of people I met daily
Learning cool technologies
Any sales meeting we’ve ever had in Arizona
What I don’t miss:
Certain colleagues and customers
Sales goals
My company car (a big perk, but for the 1st time ever I am driving the car of my choice )
The NJ Turnpike
The 6 am alarm ringing
The system being down
Any sales meeting we’ve ever had in Texas (sorry Texas friends!)
People wonder what I do with my life, if I am bored, and many tell me that they can’t imagine their lives without their employment. I have not been bored a nanosecond and I have found that my days fill up with all sorts of things – some planned, some not planned.
Serendipity rather than a paycheck now manages my schedule.
I find I have more time for old friends and for making new friends, time to cook and bake bread, time to exercise and go to the movies, time to read a book and do counted cross-stitch, time to volunteer, time to clean out closets and basements, time to travel, time to write and create, time to drink more wine, time to be thoughtful and kind. I have realized that most days are spent doing what I want to do, not what must be done. I notice more sunsets, remember more birthdays, read more books, do more puzzles, walk more steps, and generally spend time with people and things in places that make me happy.
I am more preoccupied with filling my soul rather than filling my calendar.
I do have a confession to make. Three months after I retired, I was approached by a Marketing colleague from my former company about working part-time on some projects just for a few months. That “temporary” gig is still ongoing, so some could argue that I am not really retired. However, retirement is as much a state of mind as a state of employment, and this part-time consulting is at my own pace, during the hours that I choose, stress-free, and it’s work I enjoy doing. Plus, it’s additional income and we are hosting a wedding this year.
So, I can joke about my “seme” retirement, but for those of you who have faithfully been following me for the last year, I am sure you can see that “seme” retirement agrees with me and that I agree with it. I am so grateful that we have the savings so that I could retire, and I encourage all of you to save as much as you can so that you can experience this wonderful passage of life when that time is right for you.
It’s a passage of possibility, and I am still imagining what those possibilities will be for me.
Ditto. Thanks for writing exactly what I was thinking!
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So happy to see via FB that you are enjoying retirement as well! Especially given what our lives would be like at this time of year in our former jobs!
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Love the title!
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Thanks so much, Gert! Hope to see you this spring! Went to a Flower Show in Connecticut and can’t wait to start planting things again!
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