Transitioning to Retirement: Personal Reflections

As a hard-working Federal Government employee in my last decade before retirement, I was, shall we say, large and in charge.  I took my job as a Regulatory Officer very seriously and many people found my intensity intimidating.  If you’d asked me back then whether I was defined by my job, I’d have likely said yes, at least in part.  I was satisfied in my work then, though it was often horribly stressful. 

 

My agency had a substantial Baby Boomer population and, as they started to retire, I was envious.  This got me wondering:  what kind of retirement would *I* have? 

 

A former boss once told me that, when you seriously start to think about retirement, you lean in that direction.  Be careful, he said, because it’s hard to stop leaning once you start.  When he retired in late 2006, some major changes were made to my organization and my job duties.  This impacted my love for my work pretty substantially.  I was still apprehensive about how I would adapt to retirement but, in my unhappiness at work, I started to lean anyway.

 

I credit the book The Secret with helping me focus my energy on positivity as I planned my retirement.  I listed all the elements that would define a happy retirement for me and turned them into affirmations.  I repeated these affirmations nightly at bedtime.  It may sound unbelievable but, within a matter of months, everything I had wished for started to fall into place.

 

For many people, the decision to retire goes hand-in-hand with moving to a new home, often in a different part of the country.  “Stay or move?” was a rather short-lived decision for me.  I was at a point where the widespread reckless driving in the DC area was making me feel unsafe on the road.  I was in serious need of a change of living space and I wanted to be able to have a pet (I lived in a no-pet complex).  When I seriously considered the question “if not here, where?” there was only one “where” on the list—Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.  My best friends had been living there for 20 years and I’d been going there regularly to visit them, so it was a place where I already felt comfortable.

 

I bought my Rehoboth retirement home in late 2007.  When I broke the news to my boss that I would be retiring, he offered me the opportunity to work from home all but one day a week for the last few months.  This allowed me to move to Rehoboth before I retired, so that I could be settled into my home and adapt to my new city before I had the additional adjustment of retirement.

 

Between moving day (January 20, 2008) and retirement day (May 31, 2008), I met with April Willey of the Sussex County Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) so that I could have a volunteer gig waiting for me when I retired.  The first one April set me up with was a good transition “job” for me because it was in an office environment and involved working for the government (albeit State vs. Federal).  It gave me a schedule, a place to go and a way to feel needed and productive.  Unfortunately, it was not a happy job to do, but I will always be thankful for it because I truly believe it was the right job at the right time for me in terms of my retirement transition.

 

As it turned out, my transition to retirement was a piece of cake.  That surprised a lot of people—including me!  I expected to miss my job.  I didn’t.  I expected to pine away for the only way of life I’d known for 37 years.  I didn’t.  I do miss some of the people, but I keep in touch with them via email and a few have even caught up with me here in Rehoboth while vacationing at the beach.

 

Four months into my retirement, I got a phone call from one of my best friends saying that a client of his wanted to give away her 9-month-old Shih Tzu puppy and asking me if I wanted her.  Did I want her?  I’d wanted a dog for years!  Missy has been my constant companion ever since.

 

Nine months into my retirement, I began a second volunteer gig reading one-on-one to preschool children at a Head Start school through a wonderful program called Read Aloud.  A few months later, I was offered the opportunity to write for Coming of Age: Delaware.  I gave up the State “job” and started researching and writing articles for CoADE’s Inspiring Opportunities.  Today, I continue do both of those volunteer jobs (plus occasional volunteering in animal welfare), and am currently looking to add two more volunteer jobs to the list this month, at least until school starts again.

 

May 31, 2010 marked the second anniversary of my retirement.  Am I having the retirement that I wished for myself?  I am!  I have a beautiful home (the first I’ve ever owned), a sense of community (something I sadly lacked in the DC area), many new friends, and an amazing canine companion.  I get to share my passions, talents and skills—and help people at the same time—through volunteering.  I’ve discovered that I can live pretty easily on my Government pension, and that I don’t have to have a full-time job to feel fulfilled and successful.

 

If you’d have told me five years ago that I could wish a happy retirement into existence through a positive attitude and constantly affirming what I wanted, I would have likely laughed in your face.  Yet here I am, living proof that it works—and if I can do it, so can you.