Two Weeks In... Not Exactly What I Expected

[Dixie19]

I hated the "send-off", asked them to have my retirement party without me the Monday after my departure but no such luck. It's just something we have to power through remembering what we are escaping.

 

[rodi]

I very vocally said I didn't want the send-off lunch, and encouraged folks meeting up at Green Flash's tasting room. (Microbrewery that's in the 'hood of my old work.) Much better way to leave - could actually talk to people one on one, no speeches, no formality. And good beer at the same time.

 

[ejman]

... 'tis better, in most respects.

...


Surreal indeed.

Only two weeks in, I'm a very junior member of the retireati. But what I can say is that it is both different and better than what I had imagined.

I thought, from having heard from so many ahead of me, that I might have a period of transition to go through. For me, it didn't really seem to take any time at all. The first days held a quiet, relaxed clarity. And the first Sunday evening - when I rightly might have expected, out of habit, to still feel a tug of the old blues, like I had every other Sunday since I've been an adult - I felt instead nothing but a wash of quiet satisfaction.

I can offer that motorcycle rides during the week have a very different character than do those Saturday-Sunday jaunts.



.

Wonderful writing. I excerpted the part that means the most to me because I spent most of my working life in a deep funk on Sundays. Don't get me wrong I had a very good career, had good bosses and made good money. But every Sunday I would get into this really deep depressed mood because of MONDAY!

I also rode my motorcycle over the weekends during my working career- wonderful!. Motorcycling requires total concentration so everything else other than the ride must leave the mind. After I retired I found I needed the Zen of motorcycling a bit less.

 

[Walt34]

After I retired I found I needed the Zen of motorcycling a bit less.

I found that too, only with me it was flying radio control model airplanes. Flights with those are usually in the 10-15 minute range because of the intense concentration required. Mentally you have to be "ahead of the airplane". A great hobby I thoroughly enjoyed for 18 years.

After retirement I lost all interest.

DW's sister, an RN, says that was my mental escape. Probably right.