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A month ago I had a rather significant birthday. Although I'm still the same age as Johnny Rotten and Kim Cattrall, when both digits click over you tend to muse upon your own mortality rather more than you do on other occasions. In my case I can only reflect that I've been incredibly lucky to have avoided any significant health issues, and that the law of averages alone will ensure that this won't last for ever.
But this birthday came with unexpected good news. Thanks to the 20-odd years I spent as a teacher I am now a person of leisure, with a small nest-egg and a moderate but regular income. That in itself has unsettled me so much that I haven't typed a creative sentence in anger for weeks, though I trust this will change once everything finally sinks in.
My main priority is to do something useful with my time. One of my friends fosters cats, another helps out a local soup kitchen. They won't pose as big a challenge as working out how to make a contribution to the Hatbox without a credit card or a cheque book. I'm sure someone can come up with a simple solution.
In the meantime I'm taking advice from Dave Cousins and extending my use of the day.
Comments
A belated....
happy birthday and a tip of the gat to all your future endeavors!
Love, Andrea Lena
Thanks Drea
One of those endeavours will be to try and produce a story with the kind of emotional conflict you're so adept at.
The wisest choice
I was never a teacher, and in fact when I started writing in the early 80's my skills were abominable and some may say that there has not been much improvement. And, somehow I ended up with a rather nice retirement package owing to the fact that I worked many hours, missed lots of weekends and started working when I was 12, so the money I put in in 1959 had a chance to do a lot of growing over the years.
I applaud those who are TG or Intersex, but stuck it out so the ignorant would not heap pain upon disgrace. I have come to the conclusion that transitioning should only be done in our personal fantasy worlds. My own transition erased a calling as a Christian Pastor, and much more. On the other hand, having talked with some retired Ministers, perhaps being a Pastor is more painful than transition?
Doing something useful in retirement
I'm shortly going to retire aged 63. I've been toying with keeping the old grey cells active by following Angharad and signing up for an Open University Degree.
As you were a teacher, why not put those skills to use? Is there anything like the U3A where you live (University of the Third Age)? Teaching Adults is a whole different ball game to teaching kids.
Just don't sit at home moping around. I know I won't. I already have a list of more than thirty things to do.
Time to start making that bucket list?
Samantha
I Can Still Work
Teaching adults in the UK involves vast amounts of paperwork. Besides, I have it on good authority that the funding for this type of education is about to be slashed, and not only because so much of it comes from the EU. I'd rather do the odd day here and there as a supply (substitute) teacher. No responsibilities other than getting the kids to learn something.
As far as lists are concerned, I'm with the comedian Milton Jones. Asked why he kept his eyes shut during a visit to the Great Wall of China, he said that it was on his list of ten things to see before he died - and he'd seen the other nine.
I retired in my early fifties
...and that started one of the best periods of my life. Admittedly, I'd been working for a company that had changed to the point where it was considered good to kick ass, just to keep people on their toes and it was a relief to escape. But suddenly time became my friend, rather than continually fighting it. If something needed doing, I could do it, rather than putting it on my to do list.
And rather than taking up all those crappy ideas to find another job, I sat down and wrote my first novel. It never got published, but that was the world's loss. I've continued writing all this time, initially on FM but later on BC. Life is as almost as full now as it was when I was working (then I was in overload, now I'm just happy).
You need two things to make retirement decent: good health (which does slowly tend to deteriorate so start living now) and income sufficient to live on (a lot of my younger-life obsessions such as big house and fast car have gone away, so I'm satisfied with much of what I have).
My advice, unless you need the cash avoid work; join a few voluntary associations (Samantha mentioned the U3A which is great - I've made some of my best friends ever through that); and GET WRITING NOW!
Good luck
Charlotte
My problem is not so much growing older but ...
... actually being old. I was born 4 months after WW2 got properly under way (or weigh?) - that's 1939 for US readers :) so 4 score years is increasingly in the offing. I took an early bath at 55 when my employer, seeking to reduce its workforce, made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I was intending to find another job but, working in high tech, 55 is considered to be well past it so I gave up trying.
My partner of 50 years and I ride a tandem bicycle occasionally and she cycles far more than I do these days. I enjoy making things in my workshop but I do feel fairly useless with no skills that are in demand. I can do lots of things but none of them well enough (eg I can build a decent bike wheel given enough time but for money? Not a chance!). Definitely on the home stretch to oblivion despite being healthy and half fit. I go to a lot of funerals - most of them for people younger than I am. Perhaps I'll achieve immortality but not dying LOL
Still, it's all good fun :)
Robi
You have one skill very much in demand
...which is to write half decent stories.
Forget all that bike stuff - give us a story.
Charlotte
Thanks ...
... Charlotte but I'm bereft of ideas, unlike you :)
Robi