One Year

Approximately one year ago I was cleaning out the last of my career detritus as I closed down thirty-one years of teaching. It was a heady time filled with cleaning decisions, farewell decisions, employee exit decisions and am-I-doing-the-right-thing decisions. Fortunately, I was distracted enough to keep myself from crawling too deeply into my head. One step at a time and just do the next thing.

Now that I have had a little time to process the process, here are a few things I learned.

1) It is okay to not have an exit plan.--I can hear financial planners and forward thinkers choke on their coffee with this one. When I retired, I didn't have an encore career ready to go as my next step. I didn't have elaborate hobbies in the wing. Yes, I enjoyed reading and cooking but somehow that seemed less respectable than activities such as woodworking, quilting or gardening. I wasn't training for marathons. I wasn't preparing to care for grandchildren three times a week or ever, I only have granddogs and grandcats. I wasn't producing sassy old lady Youtube videos about sassy old lady things. I was just retiring, plain and simple. And I am still retired, without any grandiose plans, and glad for every minute of it.

2) Paperwork never stops.--Most jobs come with a fair amount of paperwork and teaching is certainly no exception. There were student assignments to correct, grades to record, and forms, forms, forms and more forms to complete.  I certainly do not have that volume of paperwork any more but I am still filling out forms. Leaving the safety net of a full time employer forces one to jump through lots of hoops for pension payments, insurance changes and status adjustments, all of which involve more forms. My husband just turned 65 so the world of Medicare became another mountain of forms to decode. Most forms are online which is good and bad, depending on the day. The good news about the forms I complete now is that I have the luxury of time. Gone are the days of completing paperwork while eating lunch. Sorry, kids, for all the coffee stains and crumb spots left behind on your papers.

3) Friendships are golden.--When I am asked if I miss anything from working full time, I immediately respond, "I miss my friends." There is nothing like working side by side in the trenches with great people. Good days, bad days, dull days and crazy days are all made better by the folks who have your back. I was blessed to be surrounded by a group of people who saw the value of beginning the day with interesting conversation, lots of coffee and laughter, sweet laughter. We may not have agreed on everything but we always gave each other support and respect. If we are truly honest, we spend more time with our work friends than we do with our own families. That is not a fault, it is just a reality and it is okay to treasure our work friends as the gifts they are to us.

I am still learning retirement lessons and my exit plan is still not noteworthy. In light of recent events, maybe that is okay. For me, being present in the moment has been enough.