Eighteen Workdays To Go

I never dreamed I would retire this early, but at a fairly young age I got a job on a college campus, stayed with it and am now eligible to retire. The situation requires that I continue to work at least part-time for a while. But once I found out I was eligible, so many things came into play that I couldn't not go for it.

I accidentally said to a co-worker friend the other day, "when I graduate ... I mean retire...." We had a good laugh about that because after twenty-five years in higher education (plus my student worker days), I am truly finally leaving college.

I just celebrated the birthday that provides the correct number for the magic formula of eligibility -- age plus years of service must equal X. On my birthday each year, I send an email to a birthday-twin & campus friend. In this birthday email, I mentioned that I was retiring at the end of this month.

He in turn returned the wish and asked my plans for retirement. I told him about plans to spend more time with family and work part-time at a museum, ending by asking him what he'd been doing since he retired six months ago.

He replied that he and his wife will be traveling to Germany and Hawaii this year. They'll spend time with grandkids. They both have books being published early next year. He's still doing consulting and research in the business world. And their next trip is volunteering at a school for disabled Native American students. I'm impressed with his interesting retired life, but especially inspired by what he said at the end.

He closed by saying, "Enjoy reinventing yourself--and stay in touch."