I have asked several retirees how it felt on their very first day of pasture and consistently, the title up there just about wraps up each individual reply. After all, one has to understand that it’s no joke for someone to start working almost immediately after college, struggle at the first go then move on to build a family, and then eventually find oneself suddenly attending golden jubilee celebrations with former classmates.
A friend once said, there actually exists a deep-grey haze that separates that boundless youthful energy and excitement of your first job and the onset of one’s final day at work or retirement. That fuzzy in-between, though often captured in pics and select memories, will feel as though they never took place and most often, during one’s first days of retirement, you will ask the first of two questions, what the hell happened?
More than we know, the daily schedule of a nine to five, repeated over a forty-year period (give or take), significantly does something to any person. In a sense, it’s akin to suddenly finding oneself in uncharted territory and you have to stop by the road side and ask the second question, where to now?
Many whom I know have acted like they’ve already had it well-planned. And their template reads: retire to a farm that’s the fruit of your blood, sweat and tears, grow chickens and then live the rest of your life in peace. Well and good for some, but for most, life may have had other plans. The reality is, not everything goes your way and one’s projected peaceful farm existence may turn out to be in played in a different pasture environment; such as a retirement home or worse, a hospital bed. There is just simply no luck at all in predicting what life will throw at you. It is what it is.
So, even as it’s senseless to say, back to square one, I only mean to suggest we instead humbly start from where we left off. Deep-grey haze, fuzzy in-between or not, let’s all reboot with this carefree thought, “It is what it is”. After all, what we really have is nothing but a short journey. Welcome whatever comes, take to heart whatever good you’ve learned along the way and then strive to live out a pleasant life. Finally, as a noble add-on, help others to do the same. Muhammad Ali has been credited to have said: helping others is the rent you pay for the room that you have here on earth.
That might be a lot to think about when you get that Saturday feeling again but at least, they answer our two questions.
