The Reinvention of Myself
During Retirement
One of the first things that took a long time to still after I retired was the habit of getting up at the crack of dawn. There are still days when I get up early, but it isn’t 4 am anymore. It’s more like 6 am. I am grateful for those two extra hours of sleep.
Sometimes, it is later because the other thing that is different in my reinvention during retirement is I can stay up as late as I want. Remember when you were ten years old? Yeah, it’s fun like that. I remember the other day, I was watching something on Netflix. I remember seeing it was 9 o’clock, and I thought, “Another half an hour, and I’ll go to bed.” The next time I looked at the clock, it was one in the morning. I slept in that next morning not having to get up at any special time to get my behind to work.
The best thing about my retirement? I can write whenever I want. Sometimes, I read an article on Medium where the author has reached deep inside themselves to find something to discuss. It reminds me of what was. I think about it and realize I was there, too. It hurt, then. It still hurts, but now I can write about it. What? Anything. Writing like that whenever I want is the indulgence of my retirement.
I keep no hours, and I write when I want to.
I am able to feel the ups and downs of my own energy and accommodate my day’s doings to how I feel. If it’s 10:30 in the morning and I’m ready for a nap, I take one. Then. If I were at work, I’d be drinking coffee. I remember at 2 in the afternoon, there were so many days when I wanted a nap at work. Studies have been made about how beneficial a short break is in improving a person’s focus: hint, hint, business magnates. Your employees would be happier. Productivity would be improved. Does anybody listen? No, nobody ever did. It doesn’t matter anymore to me.
In my retirement, I am my own boss.
I like that. I might make 40 times less than what I did when I was working, but we are still getting by on social security and the odd job here and there. There are certainly things that have had to go by the wayside, but you know what? I’m having more fun now than I was five years old.
In the two years I’ve been writing at Medium, I am no longer afraid of a blank piece of paper.
Can you remember how fast you grew up as a youngster? It seemed ages between being eight years old and eighteen. In the ten years since I retired, I feel like I’ve grown that fast emotionally. I am patient now. I am forgiving and understanding of myself and others. I did not think that would be a benefit of being retired. It’s nice. For those of you getting ready to wind down, the only advice I can give is to try to learn those things when you are 40 rather than wait until you are in your 60s.
Thanks for reading.