Practicing for Retirement

Perhaps it’s because I live next to a 55+ active-adult community, but I am keenly aware of the retired people I know who have fallen into a routine rather than a life. I have spent the last 35 years building a career— a professional life. Now is the time for me to build my retirement.

While I am no longer actively job-hunting, I am also not just sitting around waiting for what will come next. I am actively practicing for retirement. What will my days look like now that they are actually free?

What does practicing for retirement look like? For now, it means following my curiosity wherever it takes me — into service, into making, into community. I have signed up to be a volunteer for Literacy Connection, using my two-decade career as a language teacher to help members of our community learn to read and write. I have already joined a committee for Random Acts Matter, an organization whose mission is to create awareness, advocacy, and a culture of random acts of kindness and support. And I am trying to connect with an organization similar to My Half of the Sky, that teaches vulnerable populations to bake.

The other half of practicing is making. Now that my Dad Project is complete, I can put the finishing touches on my altered book project. I have already started to make connections with fellow artists to create a local Chatterbox Creatives chapter. I don’t miss the routine of a job. I miss the routine of being around people — especially people of a like mind. And finally, I want to find a writing mentor to help me get started with my children’s book project.

In a few years, we plan to move out of Illinois to our forever home. I’m gathering data that will tell us where that will be.

I don’t know yet where our forever home is. But I know it won’t come with a routine of watching the clock until dinner at four. It will come with a life I’ve been practicing for all along.