My last official day of work was June 30 (which in Kentucky K-12 education is the end of the fiscal year), but I wanted to be available for my replacement, so I rigged my vacation days last year so that my last day of work was June 1. That way, if she had any major questions for the first month that she was on the job, she could call and wouldn't have to feel like she was interrupting my retirement or causing me to violate the rules of my retirement (To prevent employees from "double dipping" by "retiring" from their job on one day and then being immediately re-hired the next, the state of Kentucky requires a 90 day break of employment between one job and the next, and they're serious about it--retirees are warned by some to not set foot on campus of a school district during those 90 days!). So including my "vacation" in June, I've been jobless for almost five months now.
I have a lot to say about my retirement, but today I only want to mention one thing: As I was walking our dog a couple of days ago, it occurred to me that retirement was providing some clarity between the things I wanted to do when I was working and the things I SAID I wanted to do when I was working.
I often would say to myself, "I really want to _______________, but I'm too busy to do that now. When I retire, I'll definitely do that." At different times that blank was filled in with many different things:
- Play the piano daily
- Write a novel
- Get off of caffeine
- (conversely) Become a real coffee snob
- Eat right
- Work daily in the yard to take care of the overgrown areas
- Volunteer for [ONE OF MULTIPLE GROUPS]
- Travel
- Stay up late and become a night person
- Spend more time in deep, meaningful conversation with my wife
- Read a good book every day
- Sleep in as long as I wanted every day
- Enroll in college and take some classes...just for fun
Now, five months into retirement, it's become apparent to me that there are some things on that list that I really did want to do, and some things that I was just saying that I wanted to do. I have been playing the piano daily, but I'm no closer to volunteering for one of many organizations than I was when I was working. Even though I'm getting more sleep than I used to, I still get up early (It's pretty ingrained in me at this point), and I'm drinking as much caffeine as ever. And while I had fantasies about travelling the country, so far the only place I've gone is to Bowling Green, Kentucky and back a few times to see my older daughter at Western Kentucky University, and to Frankfort to see my brothers and sisters. Lisa and I had talked about going on an extended, two or three week vacation this month when the museum closed for the season (Oh, we're back living at the museum, which is another change that's occurred over the last five years), but I sat down one day and worked out an itinerary that took us all over the country, and when I thought about the hours of back ache in a car and nights in a hotel and all of the touristy things we'd do, I almost got sick.
So I can thank retirement for making a little clearer to me the differences between the things that I want to do and the things that I want to want to do.
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