Retirement ?

In the past few years I've often considered the word "retirement." It is interesting to me that in the creation of our society that someone came up with the idea that after a person has worked most of his (or her) life that he should be able to "retire!" To "retire" from working? I'm not sure people ever stop working.

One dictionary says retirement is "..the period at the end of a career when a person stops working to relax and enjoy their savings!" The same dictionary defines
"retire" as "to withdraw to a place of privacy" and (2)to remove from active service!" Wow how many of us would love that! I had to laugh at this because I was a person who had at least 25 careers and I never got to retire from any of them before it was time to start the next one. And "savings?" What savings? I have never had any savings, and with the economy crashing the way it has in the past 2 years I find some consolation because unlike millions of others who lost their savings I, at least, didn't have to go through the pain of losing mine!

Also, I had thought having retired years ago, that moving back to this quiet trailer park that I would finally be "withdrawing to a place of privacy"..not withdrawal from humanity but withdrawal to privacy! How wrong I was. We all know that when you have 3 or 4 people in a group there's always one who wants to know about the rest and this place is no different. A few residents here make a point of stopping by every day. Their questions are always the same. Where was I yesterday? What did I do last night? I saw you had company! When I realized these nice neighbors were violating my privacy I said no more. Now I answer their questions but never give the answers they are hoping for. "Yes, I was gone last night!" "I didn't do much of anything last night!" Needless to say they are frustrated when they leave..still not knowing what I did or where I was last night!

"Retirement" means not having to work, doesn't it? Then why is it some days I work my tail off from morning 'til night? I don't think retirement is what it's cracked up to be. For some retirement can be their undoing. They have nothing to do and can't think of anything they want to do. Most have nowhere they want to go, and they see their lives, in effect, as being finished. They sit in their chairs the rest of their lives watching the Young and Restless and the 6 o'clock news and eventually their lives end.

For myself and I'm sure others as well it may be a different scenario. I am reminded of the neighbor who stopped by one day and said, "Pat, why are you always working?" I had spent countless hours working to restore my yard so it would look like somebody lives here, but after pondering her question I said, "As long as I have something to do I'm going to do it, and if there's nothing to do I will find something to do because I'm not leaving this world sitting in my computer chair!" We both laughed.

There's a lot to say about retirement but one thing I found was that it took me several months to get it in my head that my time was now my own. I could come and go as I wanted no longer being restricted by time. I could spend 3 hours walking the floor at Wal-Mart if I wanted to, and I no longer had to be home early because I didn't have to get up early. There were no deadlines, nowhere I had to be and nobody waiting. Once I got the hang of it I realized retirement wasn't all that bad but I have to admit I still wake up at the crack of dawn even though there's no alarm clock going off.

Some see retirement as the first page of their final chapter i.e. the end! They move into retirement centers or assisted living facilities. Not me. I'd rather live in a tent in the mountains! Some do see retirement as the end. I don't see it that way. I see retirement as a time to end procrastination, a new beginning, a time to do all the things I've always wanted to do but never could do before, a time to go down roads never traveled, a time for exploring nature and myself! And interestingly the only fear I have about living in retirement is that it means I'm old and each day no matter how much or little I work I'm still getting older, and the only worry I have today is that I will live so long somebody at the DMV will one day decide I'm too old to drive! That will be the end for me..not retirement!