So you've hung up you're business attire and settled back for a little peace and quiet. Retirement doesn't have to be full of activities and projects, it can be an opportunity to recharge, and reinvigorate the senses. It's a time to let go of the stress of commuting, and deadlines, and office politics and take some me time.
De-stressing and de-compressing are essential to your enjoyment in retirement. When I retired it was great. I no longer had to get up at a gawd awful time in the morning to make my commute before rush hour, I didn't have to think about what to wear, and since I was also leaving the "part-time military", I was so happy not to have to give up anymore of my weekends. I didn't have a lot of things planned for retirement, I just wanted to spend more time with my husband and work on things around my house that needed doing. I started a garden and took care of the yard.
It wasn't until a year or so later that I started to get a little bored. During the year I had travelled to Hawaii to visit my daughter and my granddaughters. My husband and I took a trip to Missouri to visit his mother, and we visited friends in California. All of that was very gratifying and we enjoyed it but who wants to travel all the time, I don't like to fly anymore since it has become such a hassle, it's an all day affair to take even a short flight in these days of jam-packed smaller aircraft and heightened security measures. I like my home and I guess I've become a bit of a homebody.
Volunteer work is always an option to stay involved. I found some things I like to do so that filled up some of my time. Hobbies are a nice distraction, I don't paint or do pottery or anything like that but I did some craft things and I also learned this crazy game called pickle ball. I love racket sports so it was a good fit, but the rules to this game are ridiculous.
Everyone has to define their own retirement and what it means to them. In short all I can say is stay active and stay involved. You always hear the stories about so and so who retired and was dead within the year. A frightening thought I know and I'm sure it's just a coincidence that retirement and major illness or sudden death just happened to occur at the same time. You are as young as you feel so get out there and live a life that you have earned and hopefully you've planned well and can thoroughly enjoy it.
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