A friend recently invited me to attend an event in July. I politely declined. It wasn't that I didn't want to go and it wasn't that I wouldn't enjoy my time with my friend. I explained my decline was in anticipation of "untethering from clocks and calendars" - aka retirement.
For the past 42 years, Mondays through Fridays meant a commitment to being somewhere at a specific time. For 50 weeks out of the year, this typically meant reporting to work and spending eight to ten hours at my assigned work area. That daily tethering impacted way too many aspects of my life, including how often I could go to the bathroom. To this day, I have regrets about the things I missed like school programs, lunches that might have run longer than an hour, time to exercise and the freedom to just take off when I felt like I needed a break.
As I move closer to the reality of retirement, I find myself both giddy with delight and nervous as a cat. It is going to be a major adjustment, for sure. But I am certainly ready to face the uncertainty - I just need to get it on my calendar and set an alarm so I don't miss it.
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